Soroti West voters appeal decision to uphold victory of area MP

Soroti, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Two voters from Soroti West constituency in Soroti district have filed an election appeal against the decision to uphold the victory of their area Member of Parliament Jonathan Ebwalu.

The voters, Anna Grace Ameco and Donald Okwasi challenged the January 14th 2021 victory of Ebwalu before the Soroti High Court on grounds that the election was not conducted in conformity with the laid down provisions in the Constitution, Parliamentary Elections Act and the Electoral Commission Act.

They also argued that Ebwalu committed several election malpractices which grossly affected the outcome of the exercise conducted by the Electoral Commission.

However, Justice Anne Mugenyi Bitature dismissed the petition of Okwasi and Ameco saying that they did not adhere to the Parliamentary Elections Act which requires the petition filed by voters to be accompanied with 500 signatures of other registered voters in the constituency.

However, the court found that less than half of the required 500 voters fulfilled the legal requirement of appending signatures to the petition with voter’s identity cards, polling station details or districts where they were registered from.

Accordingly, the Judge condemned the petitioners to pay costs of the case to Ebwalu and the Electoral Commission whom they had jointly sued.

But not happy with the decision, through their lawyers of Okello Oryem Advocates, the voters have listed seven grounds to challenge Lady Justice Bitature Mugenyi’s decision.

They contend that the learned trial Judge erred in law and in fact when she held that the issue of whether the petition was competent as raised by Ebwalu’s lawyers was purely a point of law that did not require evidence to determine and proceeded to do so as a preliminary point of law.

The voters add that the Judge erred when she held that the petitioners had no locus to bring the petition for having failed to prove that they were registered voters in Soroti West Division constituency.

“The learned trial Judge erred in law and fact when she held that the petitioners failed to prove that the 500 or more voters listed in the attachment of the petition were registered voters in Soroti West Division Constituency,” reads the appeal.

They further add that the learned trial Judge erred in law and fact when she held that the petitioners did not comply with section 60 of the Parliamentary Elections Act.

The said section states that ….”every candidate at an election and every official agent of any candidate has the right to send to the Commission a statement in writing containing any complaint that he or she may wish to make with respect to the conduct of the election or of any election officer and any suggestions with respect to such changes or improvements in the law or in the administration arrangements as he or she may consider desirable.”

According to the voters, the Judge further erred in law and fact when she reportedly failed to properly evaluate the uncontroverted evidence on record proving that they were registered voters in Soroti West Division Constituency together with more than 500 persons who were listed as supporting the petition. As such, they contend that the Judge ended up making wrong conclusions.

They now want the Court of Appeal to allow this appeal and the decision by the Judge of the High Court be set aside and the petition heard and determined on its merits.

This appeal against Ebwalu’s victory is one of the 26 appeals arising from the 2021 general elections and High Court decisions that have so far been filed before the Court of Appeal.

The cases are yet to be fixed for hearing.

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