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Former guild aspirant Thomas Lapyem Awany filed an election petition seeking fresh guild elections citing irregularities
Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Gulu University elections tribunal has dismissed an election petition filed by the former guild aspirant Thomas Lapyem Awany.
In his petition, Lapyem demanded fresh elections over allegations of irregularities. He claimed that the election was unconstitutional and breached the University Guild Constitution of 2012. He further pointed out in the petition that the election was conducted in a manner that disenfranchised the majority voters and that the adopted voting system had not been evaluated, tested and recommended by the Department of Information Technology of the University.
On Friday, the student’s elections tribunal chaired by Mupora Mutwale, the Dean of Students dismissed the petition on the ground that it lacked merit. According to Mutwale, the petitioner filed the petition late beyond the stipulated 24 hours as per the guild constitution.
He added that on top of filing the petition late, the petitioner also failed to include the respondent in the petition making it impossible to hear the case.
Awany however faulted the tribunal for failing to follow the rule of procedures as required of it.
He revealed that the tribunal made its ruling without hearing the case, something that showed it was impartial. He says he won’t appeal at the high court since it will only be a waste of time.
In the guild elections that were conducted online, only 1,770 out of 4,124 registered students cast their votes. Herbert Ayiko from the Faculty of Medicine was elected the Guild President upon garnering 607 votes followed by Awany, a law student who got 399 votes.
Other candidates who contested were Dolphin Alonyo from the Faculty of Law, Jacob Mukwoswa from the Faculty of Education and Humanities, Herbert Amooti from the Faculty of Medicine, Sadic Ssempija and Ivan John Yiga from Faculty of Education and Humanities. They got 65, 62, 24, 13 and 0 votes respectively.
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