Jinja High Court Trashes Mwiru’s election petition against NRM’s Nabeta

JINJA, UGANDA: The High Court in Jinja City has dismissed with costs Paul Mwiru’s election petition challenging the parliamentary victory of Hon. Nathan Igeme Nabeta (NRM) as duly elected Member of Parliament for Jinja South East Division.

Through his Lawyers of Peter Walubiri and Company Advocates, Mwiru had in his petition filed in March accused the Electoral Commission (EC) and Nabeta for conniving to rob his victory in the January 14 elections.

According to Mr. Mwiru, the EC exaggerated the results at Masese I Polling Station (N-M) by reportedly using violence and subsequently falsifying the results, thereby affecting the final outcome in a substantial manner.

“The final results covered 54 Polling Stations, including the disputed ones; if you tally the other 53 (Polling Stations) and exclude the disputed one, the petitioner (Mwiru) gets 5,560 votes, while the First Respondent (Nabeta) gets 5,167 votes; the petitioner (Mwiru) will have a winning margin of 393 votes,’’ he had said in his petition.

In a court ruling delivered on Monday, October 18th, 2021, The presiding judge Mr. Issa Sserunkuma said Mwiru who contested on the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) ticket failed to substantially convince court that there were sufficient grounds to call for the nullification of Nabeeta’s victory as he claimed in his petition.

This is the fourth time Mr Mwiru has sued Mr Nabeta over lack of academic qualifications and falsification of results.

In the first suit, the Court ruled in Mr Mwiru’s favour and nullified Mr Nabeta’s victory.

But in another suit, the Court ruled in Mr Nabeta’s favour after he received clearance from the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and contested in the defunct Jinja East Parliamentary by-election, but lost to Mr Mwiru.