The Electoral Commission had spent more than nine billion Shillings on preparations for the local council and women council elections before they were halted by the courts early this month.
The Commission had set November 14 as the date for the election of women village committees and November 21 for the election of Local Council I Committees. However High Court Registrar, Sarah Langa issued an interim order on Monday, November 13 restraining EC and the Attorney General from organizing and or conducting the village council elections.
The decision followed separate applications by two concerned citizens challenging the date set by the commission. In one of the applications, James Tweheyo, the former General Secretary of Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) challenged the running of elections in the absence of Secondary School students who are sitting their final examinations until December 8.
Tweheyo, filed the application through his lawyer Caleb Mwesigwa arguing that the disputed elections, were likely to disenfranchise the Constitutional rights of students who are eligible to participate either as voters or as candidates but they were unable to register.
Mwesigwa told Court that there is an irreparable injury on part of the students aged 18 to 23 years whose constitutional right, if violated cannot be compensated by any amount. He estimated the students to be over 131,000.
In the second application, Allan Alibwani, a student secured an injunction which restrained the Commission from holding the elections for a period of 60 days from the time it was issued. The induction was issued in Jinja high court by Justice Jesses Byaruhanga.
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