The Court of Appeal in Kampala has dismissed an election appeal filed by the former Ntoroko District Woman Member of Parliament Jennifer Mujungu against her rival Anne Mary Tumwine.
The court comprised of Justices Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Stephen Musota, and Christopher Gashirabake on Thursday dismissed the appeal on grounds of a lack of sufficient evidence to support her claims.
Mujungu petitioned the High Court in Fort Portal accusing Tumwine of lack of minimum academic qualifications, and voter bribery, and that her nomination was not in conformity with the law.
The Electoral Commission declared Tumwine of the National Resistance Movement-NRM the winner with 9,787 votes against Mujungu’s 6,679 votes.
But Mujungu petitioned the court arguing that Tumwine’s nomination was not in compliance with the law because two of her seconders Ben Muthahinga Bahamwiti and Patrick Asiimwe did not sign the nomination papers. She added that it was James Kahuma and Vicky Bonabana who signed on their behalf which was unlawful.
Fort Portal High Court Judge Jesse Byaruhanga dismissed her petition with costs for lack of sufficient evidence.
Mujungu through her lawyers James Byamukama and Jude Byamukama challenged it in the Court of Appeal in Kampala.
She argued that Justice Byaruhanga erred in law and fact when he failed to properly evaluate the evidence before him and ended up coming to the wrong conclusions that Tumwine had not committed electoral offenses of bribery.
Mujungu also faulted Byaruhanga for having found that she had failed to prove that the elections were not carried out in compliance with the law which affected results in a substantial manner.
She asked the Court to nullify Tumwine’s victory and order for fresh elections to be conducted for the Ntoroko District Woman MP position.
But the Electoral Commission through its lawyers led by Eric Sabiiti and Tumwine’s Lawyer Usama Sebuufu asked Court to dismiss the appeal arguing that the High Court Judge was right when he made the contested findings.
In their decision, the Court of Appeal Justices upheld the victory of Tumwine saying that there was no sufficient evidence to nullify her election.
“In our view, therefore, the learned trial Judge was justified to find that the appellant had not proved to the satisfaction of the court that there was any registered voter who was bribed “, said the Justices.
The court indicated that whereas Mujungu had alleged that Tumwine had bribed voters by giving them food and second-hand shoes, the available evidence is that the members of Parliament in the area had been invited to witness the handover of food and other COVID-19 relief items given by Reach the World for Christ on December 23rd, 2020.
“it would therefore appear to us that this allegation was not proved to the satisfaction of the Court because there is evidence that such distribution of food and other items was done by the Covid-19 Taskforce “, said the Justices.
They dismissed the appeal with orders that each party bears its own costs in a judgment.
Tumwine welcomed the ruling.
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