The Kayunga Chief Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday dismissed an application challenging the election of Ms Harriet Nakwedde as the Woman Member of Parliament for Kayunga District, clearing the way for her gazettement as the duly elected MP.
The application was filed by National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Ms Jackline Birungi, who sought a recount of votes from 10 ballot boxes she claimed were not tallied by the district returning officer, Mr Douglas Twine, before the declaration of results.
Ms Nakwedde of the National Unity Platform (NUP), was declared the winner with 20,753 votes, followed by incumbent MP Ms Ida Nantaba with 16,138 votes, while Ms Birungi garnered 15,790 votes.
In her application, Ms Birungi, the former Buvuma Resident District Commissioner and daughter of Kayunga District NRM chairperson Mr Moses Karangwa, had argued that failure to tally votes from the disputed ballot boxes denied her victory.
However, in a ruling, Chief Magistrate John Francis Kaggwa dismissed the application, stating that Ms Birungi failed to prove that the alleged untallied votes would have altered the election outcome.
‘The evidence of declaration forms of votes in the 10 ballot boxes, which the applicant (Ms Birungi) produced in court, cannot be relied upon because they were not certified by the Electoral Commission. These declaration forms were merely concocted by the applicant,’ Mr Kaggwa ruled.
He ordered the Electoral Commission to gazette Ms Nakwedde as the duly elected Woman MP for Kayunga District and directed that each party bears its own costs.
Ms Nakwedde was represented by her lawyer, Mr Abed Nasser Mudiobole. Neither Ms Birungi nor her lawyer was present in court at the time of the delivery of the decision.
A teacher by profession, Ms Nakwedde clinched the parliamentary seat on her third attempt. She previously contested for the same position on the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) ticket and later vied for the Kayunga District LC V chairperson seat in 2021, where she controversially lost to the incumbent, Mr Andrew Muwonge of the NRM.
Shortly after the court ruled in her favour, a visibly excited Ms Nakwedde said, ‘I thank the court for upholding the will of the people of Kayunga, who overwhelmingly voted for me. I promise to serve you. I thank all the people who stood with me during this time.’
In a related ruling, the same court dismissed another application filed by Mr Patrick Nsanja seeking a vote recount in the Ntenjeru South parliamentary race. The Electoral Commission had declared Mr Fred Baseke of the NRM the winner.