The High Court in Mbarara has on Thursday February 28, dismissed an election petition against Sheema Municipality Member of Parliament Dr Elioda Tumwesigye.
Following his July 2018 by election victory, Tumwesigye, also Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, was dragged to court by Forum For Democratic Change (FDC) candidate Virginia Plan Mugyenyi who alleged that the process was marred by voter bribery, voter intimidation, failure by the electoral commission to organise the election in a free and fair manner.
In his ruling, Judge Andrew Bashaija said the petitioner failed to prove all the allegations she made against the accused.
“The few instances of error, omissions and lapses in the conduct of the election as a whole by the second respondent (electoral Commission) could not affect the results of the election in a substantial manner,” stated Justice Bashaija before dismissing the case with costs.
“The petition failed in its entirety and it’s dismissed with costs to the first (Tumwesigye) and second respondent respectively,” Justice Bashaija ruled.
Mugyenyi lost the election to her closest rival Tumwesigye, bagging 11,489 votes against the National Resistance Movement (NRM) politician who garnered 13,590 votes.
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