State Minister for Local Government Justine Nameere has dropped five of her seven witnesses in an election petition in which National Unity Platform (NUP)’s Rose Nalubowa is challenging her victory as Masaka City Woman MP.
Appearing before Justice Bernard Namanya on Wednesday, Nameere’s lead counsel Anthony Bazira told court they had decided to drop five witnesses after their main witness (Nameere) testified via Zoom.
Bazira asked the court to have the affidavits of the five witnesses withdrawn from the court record, which the court accepted after the petitioner’s side did not object.
‘It’s our humble submission that we close our case after the main witness (Nameere) in this petition has been presented for cross-examination, and has told court whatever happened at the vote recount which was presided over by the chief magistrate,’ he said.
The expunged affidavits include those of Ali Kateregga, Sadick Lubega, Fatumah Namiiro, Mark Kizza and Emmanuel Kawesi.
In her testimony, Nameere told court that the petitioner and her lawyers and agents stormed out of the Electoral Commission offices where the vote recount that took over 60 hours was carried out by Masaka Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe, and they could barely follow up what happened during the exercise.[Nalubowa]
She added that all ballot boxes that were discovered with irregularities during the recount were disregarded by the Chief Magistrate and were never considered in the final tally used to declare her the winner.
‘My Lord, to my recollection, all ballot boxes that were found with issues, during the recount, were set aside, and the Chief Magistrate Asiimwe who conducted vote recount at the Electoral Commission offices, could give reasons as to why those ballot boxes could be disqualified and all that information is on the court record,’ Ms Nameere told court via Zoom.
During the same session, the petitioner’s lawyer Samuel Muyizzi presented their last witness, Benedict Nyanzi (IT specialist), who told court that he transferred video clips (video evidence) which Nalubowa wishes to rely on in the case.
The Electoral Commission’s lawyer Geoffrey Kandeebe also presented their only witness, Enock Kugonza, the EC principal legal officer, who told court that they relied on the results from the vote recount to confirm Nameere as the duly elected area MP. This was in response to a question by Nalubowa’s lawyers on what the EC relied on to confirm Nameere’s victory.
After the session, Nameere’s lawyer Sam Ssekyewa defended the move to withdraw other witnesses, saying their main witness had made a strong case.
‘Her evidence was very solid and we did not see the need of presenting other witnesses, we are confident that the evidence we have presented to court is enough to have the case dismissed in her favour,’ he said.
Counsel Muyizzi said they had completed presenting all their evidence and expect victory.
‘We have shown court that the Electoral Commission was not in charge, it was the Chief Magistrate, who went against his word that he wouldn’t proceed with the recount after finding any ballot box with a broken seal, but acted to the contrary,’ he said.
Court gave parties up to October 12 to file written submissions and rejoinders, and the judge will later deliver his ruling on notice.
Although Nalubowa insists she won the January 15 race by 25,443 votes against Nameere’s 20,324 votes, a margin of 5,119 votes, the controversial recount handed the latter victory with 25,502 votes against Nalubowa’s 23,176 votes, a difference of 2,326 votes.