Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Erias Nalukoola Luyimbazi has filed an charm worthy the High Court docket willpower that nullified his election as Kawempe North Member of Parliament.
In his memorandum of charm lodged before the Court docket of Allure in Kampala on Wednesday, Nalukoola raises 14 grounds seeking to overturn the judgment delivered by Justice Bernard Namanya on Could well maybe 26, 2025, following a a hit election petition by the ruling Nationwide Resistance Circulate’s Faridah Nambi Kigongo who modified into as soon as the runner up in the March 13th polls.
The High Court docket had nullified Nalukoola’s victory and ordered a recent election, ruling that the electoral job modified into as soon as marred by severe irregularities which seriously affected the result.
Justice Namanya came across that the Electoral Commission failed to count, roar, and tally outcomes from 14 polling stations, a lapse that effectively disenfranchised 16,640 registered voters. Among those affected, the court docket noteworthy, modified into as soon as the petitioner herself, Faridah Nambi. The Hang furthermore held that Nalukoola individually campaigned on election day at two polling stations, namely, Mbogo Major School Playground and Kazo Angola LC1 Plan of job, in violation of the Parliamentary Elections Act.
The Electoral Commission declared Nalukoola the winner with 17,939 votes, whereas NRM’s Nambi got right here 2d with 9,058 votes. Disappointed with the result, Nambi filed a petition on the High Court docket, accusing Nalukoola of more than one electoral offences, including voter bribery, unlawful campaigning, and other irregularities.
She alleged that Nalukoola dispensed money to sway voters, offering 10,000 shillings to Kyemba Muwanguzi Nathan and 5,000 shillings every to Mawumbe George William and Wamukubira Geoffrey, amongst others.
Whereas the Electoral Commission, represented by its legal expert Eric Sabiiti, who is in Price of Litigation, brushed aside these claims and maintained that the election modified into as soon as executed by the laws, Justice Namanya dominated otherwise.
The Civil Division Hang dominated that the Commission’s failure to memoir for ends in key polling stations and Nalukoola’s behavior on polling day amounted to non-compliance with electoral legal guidelines and had a huge kill on the last result.
On the opposite hand, whereas appealing that willpower, Nalukoola argues that the trial Hang erred both in laws and truth. He contends that the discovering that he campaigned on election day modified into as soon as wrong, and that he modified into as soon as unjustly denied the sexy to depraved-peep the 19 witnesses whose affidavits supported Nambi’s petition.
He faults the Hang for relying on what he describes as aged and untested affidavit proof, some of it hearsay, and accuses the court docket of ignoring key horny precedents. Citing landmark electoral petitions equivalent to Col. (Rtd) Dr. Kizza Besigye vs. Yoweri Museveni (2001 and 2006) and Opendi & Electoral Commission vs. Nyakecho (2011), Nalukoola claims that Justice Namanya reached a willpower per incuriam, made in lack of knowledge or push apart of binding laws and that this resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
He furthermore argues that the Hang shifted the burden of proof from the petitioner to him, wrongly concluding that he needed to disprove allegations of illegality and prove that any non-compliance did no longer seriously affect the effects. Nalukoola insists that despite the reality that some irregularities took place, they bear been no longer well-known enough to commerce the result, given the massive margin whereby he defeated Nambi.
In his charm, Nalukoola is asking the Court docket of Allure to space apart the High Court docket willpower, reinstate his election victory, and award him horny costs for both the High Court docket and appellate lawsuits. Within the replace, he requests the appellate court docket to roar a retrial, with the case assigned to a outlandish High Court docket settle.
Within the period in-between, the Electoral Commission has since indicated that this also can unbiased no longer charm the High Court docket ruling and is already making ready for a attainable 2d by-election in Kawempe North.
Nalukoola’s charm, nonetheless, keeps the topic active and might well perhaps reverse or lengthen the deliberate contemporary election.
The topic is yet to be fastened for hearing by a Panel of three Court docket of Allure Justices.
***
URN
