Kasese MP seat losers back to court

Kabarole

Two National Resistance Movement parliamentary candidates in Kasese District are not about to give up their quest for the 9th Parliament after losing to Forum for Democratic Change candidates in the February 18 general elections.

Ms Rehema Muhindo and Mr Fred Businge, who lost the district Woman and Bukonzo East seats to Ms Winfred Kiiza and Mr Yokasi Bihande, respectively, have now petitioned the High Court in Fort Portal, seeking to have an earlier failed petition in a lower court in Kasese revisited.

The losers last month successfully applied for a vote re-count at the Chief Magistrates Court in Kasese but during the exercise, the presiding magistrate, Mr Charles Serubuga, halted the re-count after finding some ballot boxes tampered with and one of them empty. The exercise in the lower court had re-counted 15 boxes.

Civil revision
The petitioners later protested the court’s decision and applied for a civil revision order at the High Court in Fort Portal, which heard the two applications on Monday and Tuesday. They also separately sued the respondents and the Electoral Commission.

Justice Simon Byakagaba is hearing the case in which the petitioners are represented by Mr Ngaruye Ruhindi, Mr Victor Asiimwe and Mr Chan Masereka and the respondents by Mr Dan Wandera Ogalo and Mr Sebindire, while the EC is being represented by Ms Christine Kaahwa.

‘Stealing through courts’
The applicants want the court to revise the record of the proceedings in the lower court and the order halting the re-count of the votes be set aside so the re-count can be resumed. “In the Winnie Byanyima Vs Ngoma Ngime case of 2001 the Chief Magistrate (Ms Cissy Mudhasi) saw that the ballot boxes were tampered with but she continued with the re-count until the High Court nullified what she was doing,” said the attorney for the respondents, Mr Ogalo, in the court on Monday.

He added: “The Chief Magistrate in Kasese finds the same scenario and halts the exercise but the applicants are arguing that he did so with irregularity. If court allows this application, it will allow more people to steal elections through court process, therefore courts should protect the electoral process.”