The High Court has dismissed an
election petition filed by National Unity Platform (NUP) deputy spokesperson
Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, upholding the victory of National Resistance Movement
(NRM) candidate Fredrick Ruhindi as the Member of Parliament for Nakawa
Division East Constituency.
In a comprehensive ruling, Justice
Allan Nshimye concluded that the evidence presented by the petitioner did not
justify setting aside the election results. Consequently, Election Petition No.
12 of 2026 was dismissed, with the court ordering that each party bear its own
costs.
Mufumbiro’s petition contested the
election outcome on multiple grounds, alleging widespread irregularities
including:
- The exclusion of results from 22
polling stations.
- Discrepancies in voter records
and inflated vote tallies.
- Alleged tampering with
Declaration of Results (DR) forms.
However, the court scrutinized the
evidentiary weight of these claims, pointing out that several submissions
relied on uncertified photocopies of public documents, which violated Section
68 of the Evidence Act and established legal precedent (such as Karuhanga v
Electoral Commission). Furthermore, the court noted inconsistencies in
testimonies provided by the petitioner's witnesses—such as an initial claim of
a 99.99% voter turnout at Staff Nursery Primary School, which was later
corrected during cross-examination to 66.78%.
A central focus of the trial was the
Electoral Commission’s failure to include results from 22 polling stations in
the final tally, which Justice Nshimye confirmed was a breach of mandatory
provisions under Sections 72 and 78 of the Parliamentary Elections Act.
While the judge agreed that this
omission constituted an electoral irregularity under Section 81(a) of the Act,
he stressed that the key legal test was whether the breach substantially
affected the final outcome.
Rather than relying purely on the
total number of registered voters in the affected areas (which Mufumbiro argued
totaled 11,117), the court examined the actual recorded votes from the valid DR
forms available:
- Mufumbiro's votes from the 22
stations: 1,072
- Ruhindi's votes from the 22
stations: 599
- Original Winning Margin: 3,508 votes
By mathematically adding the omitted votes to the candidates' tallies, Ruhindi's lead was narrowed by 473 votes, leaving him with a comfortable winning margin of 3,035 votes. Because incorporating the missing votes did not alter the ultimate winner, the court ruled that the administrative omission did not affect the election in a substantial manner.
With the delivery of Justice Nshimye's
ruling, the legal challenge against Nakawa East MP Fredrick Ruhindi has been
officially brought to a close, affirming his status as the duly elected
representatives
