Arua mayor wants rival’s victory overturned

Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  The Interim Mayor of Arua City Issa Kato has filed a petition challenging the victory of Wadri Sam Nyakua in the January Mayoral elections. 

Nyakua, who is the LCV Chairperson Arua District was declared the winner with 13,564 votes against Issa Kato’s 13,313 votes. 

Kato claims that the election was marred by irregularities and rigging arguing that the victory is null and void. He says that his legal team has already served his opponent with the petition as they await the court decision.

Issa Kato claims that out of the 289 ballot boxes, the Electoral Commission only delivered 256 ballot boxes to the tally centre, which questions the authenticity of the results. He also alleges that the electoral commission created two tally centres to deny him victory.  

Nyakua says that he has received the petition, but says the issues raised in the petition do not concern him but rather would best be answered by the electoral commission.  

Jackson Higenyi, the Electoral Officer for the West Nile region says that they have not yet received the petition but intimated that they will respond to the petition once they are served. 

He says that Kato is within his right to contest the election results.   

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