Court orders fresh elections in Aruu County

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Justice Asiimwe Tadeo, the Gulu High Court Judge has ordered for fresh elections in Aruu County.

This follows an election petition filed by Samuel Odonga Otto, the former Aruu County Member of Parliament challenging the nomination of his rival Charles Komakech. In his petition, Otto said that Komakech did not resign from his position as a psychiatrist nurse at Butabika National Referral Hospital.

In his ruling on Friday, Justice Asiimwe said that Komakech wrongly addressed his resignation to the Executive Director of Butabika Hospital, instead of the Permanent Secretary Health Service Commission since he was a pensionable public servant, as per the Public Service Standing Order.

Justice Asiimwe said that by addressing the resignation letter to the wrong authority, Komakech is good as a public servant who did not resign.

Asiimwe ordered the Election Commission to carry out a fresh election for the constituency. He also advised Komakech to follow the right procedure of resigning before he could join the race.

Justice Asiimwe however rejected Odonga’s two requests of court declaring him as the duly elected Member of Parliament of Aruu County and Komakech paying costs.

Odonga lost to Komakech in the January 14th Parliamentary elections. He got 6,199 votes while Komakech garnered 9,796 votes. The race attracted a total of seven contestants.

The other five contestants in Aruu County MP race were Helen Acheng of the NRM who got 2,892 votes, Charles Ochora of NUP with 300 votes. Others were Justine Odong of FDC, Denise Godwin Okello of DP and Livingstone David Odong with 164, 150 and 70 votes respectively.

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