Prime
MP Kwizera’s contempt of court case against EC thrown out
Mr Eddie Kwizera
What you need to know:
- In March 2020, Mr Kwizera filed an application seeking an order for Justice Byabakama to be arrested and committed to Civil Prison for contempt of court.
The Constitutional Court has thrown out a case in which Bufumbira County East MP Eddie Kwizera was accusing the Electoral Commission chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama of defying court orders that nullified the creation of six municipalities.
In March 2020, Mr Kwizera filed an application seeking an order for Justice Byabakama to be arrested and committed to Civil Prison for contempt of court.
Through his lawyers, the legislator had asked the court to order the Electoral Commission to pay a fine of Shs3,000,000,000 to the registrar of the court in order to purge the contempt.
He also wanted the court to order that all preparations for elections in respect of parliamentary constituencies created after 2OO1 be immediately halted.
But in a unanimous decision, a panel of five justices of the Constitutional Court led by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera struck out Mr Kwizera’s application and ordered him to pay legal costs incurred by the Electoral Commission and its chairperson, Justice Byabakama.
Other justices are Catherine Bamugemereire, Muzamiru Kibeedi, Irene Mulyagonja and Oscar John Kihika.
“It is quite clear that the applicant, in the instant case, improperly used court processes by filing this action for contempt before the alleged act of contempt had occurred. This, in our view, renders the application frivolous and vexatious to the respondents who have had to respond to it at the cost of the Commission,” the justices ruled.
Documents show that in December 2019, the Constitutional Court ruled that the creation of the municipalities of Apac, Sheema, Ibanda, Nebbi, Bugiri and Kotido as constituencies was null and void.
The court also ruled that elections held in those constituencies contravened articles 63 (6) and 20 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda.
Court documents show that the Electoral Commission was to file within one year, in the Constitutional Court, the evidence of the prescription by Parliament of the number of constituencies in Uganda for the next general elections pursuant to the provisions of Articles 294 and 63(1) of the Constitution.
In their ruling, the five justices observed that Mr Kwizera filed the matter prematurely hence there was no contempt committed as of the time of filing the application.
They ruled that the application for contempt of court was an abuse of the court process for being frivolous because it was filed well before the one-year period ordered by the court had expired.
Court documents show that upon nullification of the constituencies, the Electoral Commission appealed against the decision in the Supreme Court wherein it confirmed the Constitutional Court's decision and dismissed the appeal.
Mr Kwizera vainly argued that in breach and contempt of the decision and orders of the court, EC and its chairperson jointly and severally persistently disregarded and disobeyed the said orders thereby defying the authority of the Court and undermining the dignity of the Court.
“It is common ground that by the time this application was filed, the time frames within which the respondent ought to have filed the evidence of prescription and demarcation of the constituencies as directed by the Constitutional Court hadn't elapsed,” the judges held.
