Ndorwa East loser appeals dismissal of election petition

Kabale, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The loser of the Ndorwa East Parliamentary seat in Kabale district, Dr. Protazio Begumisa has appealed the decision dismissing his election petition against Wilfred Nuwagaba.

The Electoral Commission declared Nuwagaba as the winner with 15,962 votes against Begumisa’s 15,826 votes.  Begumisa who contested on the National Resistance Movement party ticket petitioned the High Court in Kabale seeking to overturn the victory of Nuwagaba on grounds of voter bribery, harassing of his agents, and vote-rigging reportedly while conniving with police officers.

Justice Phillip Odoki dismissed Begumisa’s petition with costs on grounds that Begumisa had failed to prove to the satisfaction of the court the evidence related to harassment, vote-rigging, and other grounds he had adduced in his petition.

Evidence before the Court of Appeal in Kampala shows that on November 5, he filed a notice of appeal intending to challenge Odoki’s ruling.

Through his lawyers of Kesiime and Company Advocates, Begumisa argues that the learned trial judge erred in law and fact when he failed to make a general finding on whether his affidavits in support of the petition complied with the law or not.

“The learned trial Judge erred in law and fact in his specific findings that did not amount to a general finding or declaration as a whole on whether the parliamentary elections for Ndorwa County East Constituency held on the 14th January 2021 were conducted or not in compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, the Electoral Commission Act, and the Parliamentary Elections Act as amended”, reads the appeal in part.

According to Begumisa, the judge also failed to evaluate properly the evidence brought before the court record and as such, he says Justice Odoki arrived at the wrong conclusions of dismissing his petition and upholding Nuwagaba’s victory.

“The learned trial judge erred in law and fact when he used conjecture and fanciful theories and unjustified inferences rather than the evidence on record to determine the petition which occasioned a miscarriage of justice”, adds the appeal.

Begumisa now wants the Court of Appeal to set aside the entire judgement of Justice Odoki and subsequently declare him as the validly elected Member of Parliament for Ndorwa East Constituency or fresh elections be conducted in the aforementioned constituency.

The appeal against Nuwagaba is amongst the 79 other appeals arising from the January 2021 elections and High Court decisions that have so far been filed before the Appellate Court and are yet to be fixed for hearing.

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