High Court president Johnston Busingye has ordered the Liberal Party (PL) to produce the minutes of the meeting held at the office registrar of civil status (notaire) when they presented the revised party statute for registration.

The development comes after the five plaintiffs, including former MPs Elie Ngirabakunzi and Isaie Murashi claimed they were expelled from the party based on the new party statute which has not been published in the official gazette.

"Court hereby orders PL to produce minutes of their meeting with the registrar, minutes of the party congress of September 16 2007 and the minutes of the September 26 of the party executive committee not later than November 2 (today),” Justice Busingye ruled yesterday.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs claim they were sacked basing on article 68 of the new statute which has not yet been published in the official gazette.

"They are just wasting time…..they are the ones who signed the new statute and a person like Ngirabakunzi was made national party treasurer on basis of this statute, it means they agreed that it is binding,” defense lawyer John Bosco Kazungu said.

He argued that if Ngirabakunzi is questioning the authenticity of the new statute, he would not have accepted that post in the first place.

The trial resumes this afternoon after the required documents are presented. Apart from the two ex-MPs, the other plaintiffs are Dr Laurien Nyabyenda, Emmanuel Musabyimana and Emmanuel Uwimana.

They have prayed to court to reverse the party decision to expel them from the party and demand Frw10m for each of the former MPs and Frw5m for the rest in damages.

PL lawyers also sought Frw30 million from all of the sacked members for allegedly defaming, through newspapers, its members of the executive committee.

Meanwhile, the sacked former MPs recently decided to drop their appeal against a ruling by the High Court after the appellate court (Supreme Court) dismissed their application to summon the Chamber of Deputies as a defendant in the case.

They had argued that parliament contravened article 78 of the Constitution by going on with the arrangements to have the duo replaced despite the fact that their dispute was still before courts of law.

Wrangles within the party started in August after the party elections that saw Commerce Minister Protais Mitali become party president replacing Senate vice president Prosper Higiro. Ngirabakunzi’s camp alleges the elections were rigged.

Subsequently, this camp contested the results of the poll by writing a letter to Local Government Minister, Protais Musoni. They called for a re-election and later filed an injunction at the High Court seeking court order to block the replacement of the parliamentarians.

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