Mayoral primaries loser petition baseless, says NRM

By Andante Okanya 

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has described as baseless a petition filed by a loser in the party’s Kampala Lord Mayor primaries, saying the outcome depicted the will of the people.
 

The party’s statement is contained in its joint response with the winner Peter Sematimba, filed on Friday at the civil division of the High Court in Kampala through Byamugisha Gabriel and Company Advocates.
 

The case arose on April 9, when Muhammad Kasule, purported that the poll held on March 30, was riddled with malpractice.
 

But the party states that the petition was hasty, as Kasule should have exhausted the party’s internal mechanisms to solve his grievance.
 

“The petition was prematurely filed. This is a matter of NRM internal democracy that should not be brought to court before the party has dealt with it,” the rebuttal states.

Sematimba polled 108,000 votes, while Kasule was second with 17,000 votes. Two other candidates contested, with Fred Kazibwe polling 11,000 votes, while Twaha Najja was last with 8,600 votes.
 

The loser also laments that the party deliberately made his picture appear blurred on the ballot paper, which affected his victory.

Kasule purports that he personally visited several polling stations and discovered that polls were being conducted without a voters register.
 

He alleges that Sematimba did not have the requisite academic qualifications at the time when the primaries were conducted.
 

But Sematimba who has sworn an affidavit, rubbishes the claim, saying his academic qualifications have been verified by National Council for Higher Education on three occasions.

In addition, he is demanding to be paid costs of the petition. Currently, the process by the Electoral Commission to organise a by-election for the post, is on halt, pending determination of a court case filed by ousted Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.
 

On Monday, the case came up for scheduling in court presided by Justice Elizabeth Musoke. However, the intended business was not accomplished, as Kasule’s lawyer Francis Katabalwa asked for time to peruse through the NRM response.

The judge asked the parties to explore the option of an outside court settlement. She said such conflicts are best settled outside the precincts of court and that it would help them galvanise rather than disillusion supporters who subscribe to the party.
 

She gave a tentative date of June 17 for scheduling of the case in the event that talks fail. Scheduling is meant to point out the contentious issues that need to be deliberated upon, as the case is heard and concluded.