Court throws out Mbale District boss
Court also declined to award costs saying that Mr Magombe shall meet one-third of the cross appellant costs in this court and the court below. Courtesy photo
What you need to know:
- Court also declined to award costs saying that Mr Magombe shall meet one-third of the cross appellant costs in this court and the court below.
- Court also faulted the electoral commission officers at the district tally centre for negligently handling the tallying of the final results leading to this petition and now the retrial.
KAMPALA. The Court of Appeal on Friday nullified the election for NRM’s Mr Bernard Elly Mujasi as the Mbale District chairperson, declaring the seat vacant and ordering for fresh retrial before another judge.
The petitioner, Mr Vincent Magombe had stated in his petition that the elections organised by Electoral Commission under the leadership of Eng Badru Kiggundu, did not comply with the electoral laws and that results from 19 of the polling stations where he won, had been falsified and given to Mr Mujasi.
In their ruling read by the court’s deputy registrar Esther Nambayo, the three justices noted that for the justice of this case, Mr Mujasi be given an opportunity to tender in evidence of the results of polling stations whose final figures in the final results tally sheet he disputes.
The justices include; the Deputy Chief Justice Alfonse Owinyi- Dollo, Elizabeth Musoke and Barishaki Cheborion.
“The petition of the Mujasi’s election is hereby remitted back to the lower court for a retrial before a different judge and shall be restricted to determining the issues of whether the irregular tallying of results at the district tally centre affected the final result and determining which candidate upon correction of all the tallying errors obtained the highest votes,” court ruled.
The justices also ordered the court that will preside over the retrial to hand in evidence of any valid declaration of result forms that the appellant and the respondent wish to rely on.
Court also declined to award costs saying that Mr Magombe shall meet one-third of the cross appellant costs in this court and the court below.
Court also faulted the electoral commission officers at the district tally centre for negligently handling the tallying of the final results leading to this petition and now the retrial.
Justice Margaret Oguli Oumo had nullified the election of Mr Mujasi on grounds that there was non- compliance of electoral laws by the EC during the exercise.
“Considering that there were falsification and alteration of results in the electoral process, it’s difficult for court to declare the winner,” Justice Oguli said.
The judge said the EC officials admitted having swapped Mr Magombe’s results from 19 polling stations with Mr Mujasi’s, something she said showed complete failure on the part of electoral body that affected the election results.
