By Vincent Mayanja
Kampala - Ugandan election officials on Monday cleared the way for detained opposition leader Kizza Besigye to be nominated as a candidate to challenge President Yoweri Museveni in elections next year.
Uganda's Electoral Commission (EC) said Besigye was eligible to submit his candidacy for the March polls, rejecting an opinion from the country's top lawyer that the treason, terrorism, weapons and rape charges he faces are too serious to allow his nomination.
"It is the considered view of the Electoral Commission that Kizza Besigye, the president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)... can still qualify to be nominated as a presidential candidate," EC chairperson Badru Kiggundu said.
"This is a final decision," he told reporters, reading from a lengthy statement explaining that the commission's reasoning was based on a constitutional principle that non-convicted criminal suspects are eligible to stand in elections.
Kiggundu remained silent on what would happen if Besigye is convicted of the charge he faces in criminal and military courts although Uganda's constitution bars felons convicted of capital offenses from running for any office.
Both the treason charge Besigye faces before the High Court and the terrorism charge he faces at the military tribunal are punishable by the death penalty on conviction.
The EC decision came after Ugandan ministries offered conflicting opinions about whether or not Besihgye, who is seen as Museveni's main rival and who claims the charges against him are political, should be allowed to submit his candidacy.
Last week, the interior ministry said he could submit his candidacy from behind bars while Attorney General Khiddu Makubuya said his nomination would be "tainted with illegalities" and "should not proceed".
The commission's ruling was announced shortly after Uganda's High Court refused for a third time to release Besigye despite an earlier decision to grant him bail and a judge set a December 19 trial date for him to face the treason and rape charges. Besigye has been in prison since his mid-November arrest because of the separate terrorism and weapons charges he faces at a military tribunal, whose competence he has challenged before the country's Constitutional Court.
Justice Remmy Kasule said a decision on his provisional release would have to wait until the Constitutional Court rules on Besigye's motion to disqualify a military tribunal from prosecuting him because he is a civilian.
"This court is subordinate to the Constitutional Court," he said. "This court, therefore, declines to entertain an application for temporary release."
Also Monday, the High Court set December 19 for the start of Besigye's trial on treason and rape charges, the same date the military tribunal is to begin its court martial proceedings.
Besigye and his supporters claim the charges against him are intended to prevent him from standing in the elections against Museveni, who has drawn international criticism for the prosecution despite the president's repeated denials the case is political.
Besigye, the leader of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, fled Uganda after losing 2001 polls to Museveni, who later accused him of trying to foment a coup.
He returned to the east African country on October 26 after four years of self-imposed exile, vowing to fight Museveni's "dictatorship" in the upcoming polls.
But Besigye was detained three weeks later, sparking deadly riots in the capital where authorities have now banned rallies in his support. - Sapa-AFP