Minister Muyingo distances himself from petition challenging rival’s victory

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Dr. John Chrysostom Muyingo, the Bamunanika County Member of Parliament and State Minister for Higher Education has distanced himself from the petition challenging the victory of his rival and former campaign manager, Robert Ssekitooleko.

Ssekitooleko who ran on the National Unity Platform-NUP party ticket trounced the minister in the January 14, 2021 polls. He polled 27,850 votes against Muyingo’s 24,463 votes.

The other candidates included Ronald Muyingo, an independent who garnered 1,424 votes, Moses Matovu from the Alliance for National Transformation-ANT who got 483 votes while the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC candidate Alex Kalyesubula got 422 votes.

Last week, Christopher Matabi, a voter at Kiteme Church of Uganda polling station in Bamunanika county and resident of Nnalongo in Bamunanika sub-county petitioned the High Court in Kampala seeking the nullification of Ssekitooleko’s victory.

Through Byamugisha & Company advocates, Matabi accuses Ssekitooleko and Electoral Commission of voter bribery and failure to organize free & fair elections respectively. In his petition, Matabi claims that Ssekitooleko bribed voters before and on the polling day at a number of villages including in Buyondo, Sekamuli, Kalangala and Gayaza.

He claims that Ssekitooleko distributed between Shillings 10,000 and 200,000 to voters to influence their choice. On the part of the EC, Matabi says results from various polling stations did not match the number of registered voters. Some of the affected polling stations are Busiika UMEA A-Z, Busiika NAL-Z and Giliyada polling station.

Matabi says that the poor tallying of results led to the loss of the incumbent who was the rightful winner of the parliamentary race. Since the issues of the petition came to the limelight, word has been spreading around that Matabi is a front Muyingo.

However, the minister has denied having a hand in the petition. While distributing relief food to residents over the weekend following a devastative storm, Muyingo, said that he conceded defeat, adding that he will never go to court to overturn his defeat.

*****

URN