The Entebbe municipality mayoral election petition is dimissed

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Court of Appeal in Kampala has dismissed with costs an election appeal filed by Vincent Kayanja  De Paul, a contender in the Entebbe Municipality Mayoral race against the eventual winner Fabrice Rulinda.

The Court presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, Catherine Bamugemereire, and Monica Mugenyi on Tuesday struck off the appeal after allowing an application by the Electoral Commission that challenged Kayanja’s case for having been filed out of the stipulated timeframe.

The Electoral Commission declared Rulinda, an Independent candidate, as the winner of the 2021 Mayoral race with 6,703 votes against Kayanja of the Democratic Party who polled 5,576 votes, a result which he challenged claiming alteration and falsification in 74 polling stations.

But Rulinda, together with the Electoral Commission lawyers led by Hamidu Lugoloobi and Eric Sabiiti, asked the Court to dismiss the petition arguing that it offended the laws governing affidavit evidence and was incurably defective. The Court heard that the affidavits were based entirely on hearsay and that the documents accompanying them had been forged.

Presiding Judge Isaac Muwata, agreed with Rulinda and the Electoral Commission, and ruled that there was nothing left to support Kayanja’s petition when the paragraphs that were based on hearsay in the affidavits were removed. However, Kayanja appealed against the ruling and the three Justices of the Court of Appeal led by Fredrick Egonda Ntende sent the file back to the High Court for a fresh hearing.

Accordingly, the case was heard afresh by  High Court Judge Jesse Byaruhanga, and Kayanja mainly contested the results from 10 polling stations. In the end, Justice Byaruhanga ruled that Kayanja presented uncertified copies of the Declaration of Result Forms that could not be relied upon to prove that they were inconsistent with the copies given to his agents.

Kayanja returned to the Court of Appeal for the second time appealing against Justice Byaruhanga ‘s decision. He said that the judge had erred in law and fact by dismissing his petition which caused him a miscarriage of Justice. This time, the Electoral Commission, together with Rulinda sought to strike out the appeal on grounds that it was filed late.

On Tuesday, Justice Jesse Rugyema of the High Court ruled that the notice of Appeal should have been filed before May 1, 2023, or the next day since the deadline fell on a public holiday. However, Kayanja’s lawyers of Alaka and Company Advocates instead filed it on May 9, 2023, which was way beyond the seven days stipulated under rule 29 of the Parliamentary Elections Interim Provisions and Rules.

” …That is not only strange but an indication of an attempt by the respondent and his lawyers to manipulate the system. It is not possible that the Notice of Appeal was endorsed by the High Court Registrar on May 9 and gets endorsed by the Court of Appeal on May 20, 2023, said the Justices.

According to the Justices, they have also confirmed foul play and falsehood between Kayanja and his lawyers which they described as unfortunate for a lawyer.

“We find this one case where this court may exercise its discretion in allowing the instant application on grounds that election appeal was filed out of the prescribed seven days and as such, it should be struck out,” said the Justices.  Consequently, they dismissed his application with costs.

Speaking to URN after the decision, Kayanja said he is not satisfied with the judgment of the court but he has nothing else left to do apart from seeking divine intervention.

Rulinda however welcomed the decision saying the court case has occupied most of his time and he has spent much money defending himself against baseless accusations.

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URN