Former presidential candidate Robert Kasibante has filed an application in the Supreme Court of Uganda seeking permission to withdraw his petition challenging the results of the 2026 presidential election, citing prohibitive costs and the technical complexity involved in pursuing the matter.

In a Notice of Motion lodged before the court, Kasibante is seeking leave to withdraw Presidential Election Petition No. 1 of 2026, in which he sued President Yoweri Museveni, the Electoral Commission, and the Attorney General.

Kasibante is also requesting the court to allow the withdrawal of Miscellaneous Application No. 1 of 2026, which sought a comprehensive audit of election materials, including declaration forms, Biometric Voter Verification records, scanners, and electoral servers used during the polls.

In his application, Kasibante states that conducting such an audit would require processing an enormous volume of electronic data drawn from across the country. He contends that the estimated cost of carrying out the exercise is extremely high and far beyond his financial capacity.

The petitioner further asserts that the scale and technical sophistication of the electronic data involved would require the engagement of highly specialised and independent forensic experts, making the discovery process impractical to sustain within the framework of a presidential election petition.

Kasibante has additionally asked the Supreme Court to order that each party bears its own legal costs arising from both the main petition and the related application.

The motion has been brought under Section 63 of the Presidential Elections Act, the Presidential Election Petitions Rules, and the inherent powers of the court. The Supreme Court has not yet fixed a date for hearing the application. If granted, the withdrawal would bring to an end one of the legal challenges arising from the 2026 presidential elections.

The application comes at a time when the Supreme Court was expected to deliver a ruling on Kasibante’s request seeking access to back-end data relied upon by the Electoral Commission in declaring President Museveni the winner of the January 15, 2026, elections.