Is Byabakama losing control of elections?

Byabakama’s style

The 63-year EC boss who has lived most of his professional life as a court prosecutor appears determined to remain noncommittal when cornered but admitting publicly that he is “not conversant with technology” yet he is in charge of a “scientific election” might come to haunt him.

Byabakama also appears determined to sway to whatever is thrown at him; not least by President Museveni.

Catching Museveni’s eye is an act Byamukama appears to have perfected from the days he was deputy director of public prosecution until 2008 when the President appointed him as High Court judge.

Many Ugandans will remember him for his role in the famous 2005 case in which then-president of the Forum for democratic Change (FDC) and presidential candidate, Col. Kizza Besigye, was accused of rape. At that time, Byabakama, who had been appointed deputy director of public prosecution 10 years earlier in 1996, had built a formidable reputation for his powerful and dramatic court submissions.

Although the case was thrown out for what Presiding Justice Katutsi said was evidence brought before the court which was “inadequate even to prove a debt, impotent to deprive of a civil right, ridiculous for convicting of the pettiest offence, scandalous if brought forward to support a charge of any grave character, monstrous if to ruin the honour of a man who offered him as a candidate for the highest office of this country”, it did little to taint Byabakama’s professional stature.

Indeed Justice John Bosco Katutsi noted that Byabakama had, in his submission, admitted that the so-called evidence gathered against Besigye by then-CID Director Elizabeth Kutesa  had “short-comings” and Katutsi called the evidence “crude and amateurish” and betraying the intentions behind the case.

President Museveni must have noted Byabakama’s performance and two years later made him a High Court judge. By 2015 he had risen to the Court of Appeal. Now, as EC boss since 2016, Byabakama appears to enjoy the same legal duels he dominated as a prosecutor.

Byabakama’s legal gymnastics have been on show since he announced the so-called scientific elections.

In the same interview, Tumukunde who sounded desperate wanted Byabakama to write to parliament and President Museveni and demand that they declare a state of emergence to allow the elections to be postponed.

“You should say these are not normal circumstances, can you please tell us what we should do? Then it ceases to be your matter. But you seem to own it on behalf of everybody. That is the whole thing we do not seem to understand,” Tumukunde said.

He added: “The point I want answered is this: are these normal circumstances? If they are not, who is supposed to say so? It is not yourself; it is to tender it to where it belongs, by you admitting that you are no longer in control.”

Tumukunde also criticized the many laws and guidelines popping up to steamroll through the election such as the Health Act.

“Who is in control of the election,” Tumukunde asked, “Is it any longer the Electoral Commission?”

According to Tumukunde, “These are fundamental questions we need to be answered.”

“Even internal democracy within parties is being murdered,” Tumukunde insisted, “The point I want answered is this: are these normal circumstances? If they are not, who is supposed to say so? It is not yourself; it is to tender it to where it belongs, by you admitting that you are no longer in control.”

But Byabakama was unfazed, giggled gleefully and sparred firmly.  He insisted the EC remains in control as the primary organizer and convener of the election. As to declaring the COVID-19 imposed circumstances abnormal he said “that is not within our domain to determine.”

He argued that not every abnormality necessarily implies you cannot have a normal election.

“We must look at what the law says; whether there is a definition of what a normal election is,” he said. He said Article 77 of the constitution “talks of a situation which prevents a normal election not a situation that gives rise to abnormal situations or circumstances.”

COVID -19 has affected our lives, but has it completely erased campaigning, nomination of candidates, or polling, he said.