MP Abiriga wins poll petition case
Maj Ibrahim Abiriga inspects a parade while he was still Arua RDC last year. PHOTO BY FELIX WAROM OKELLO
What you need to know:
Background. His election had been challenged on grounds that unauthentic results forms had been used to declare him winner.
ARUA. The Arua Municipality MP, Maj Ibrahim Abiriga, has shrugged off critics who thought his journey to Parliament was doomed from the start.
The former Uganda National Rescue Front combatant, who is said to have stopped in Primary Three, surprised many when he contested on the NRM ticket, beating those with degree qualifications in the February parliamentary race.
Last Friday, the High Court in Arua dismissed the election petition against Maj Abiriga as the judge said the petitioner failed to prove that the use of unauthentic results declaration forms to declare him winner affected the final outcome of the election.
In the petition, FDC’s Bruce Musema Mudathir had accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of conniving with Maj Abiriga to make parallel declaration forms that bore neither the codes nor serial numbers.
However, Justice John Eudes Keitirima noted that the EC was right in ordering for the printing of the unofficial declaration forms to include Maj Abiriga’s name, otherwise it would have disenfranchised the voters.
The EC, before the elections, had deleted Maj Abiriga’s name from the declaration forms after he lost a petition by a voter. But just a week to Election Day, President Museveni ordered to have Maj Abiriga reinstated on the ballot papers. Consequently on Election Day, some declaration forms did not bear Abiriga’s name. But Maj Abiriga will have to hold on popping the champagne as he also faces a case filed against him over forgery of academic documents from the Uganda Management Institute and the Uganda Christian University, where he claims to have done diploma courses.
