Buwekula South MP battle: Why court dismissed Tumwesigye’s casev

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The High Court in Mubende has dismissed a case in which Fred Tumwesigye sought to have the declaration of his opponent, Dedan Mubangizi, the validly elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Buwekula South Constituency, by chief magistrate Norbert Ssajjabi, quashed.

Ssajjabi declared Mubangizi of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) the validly elected MP for Buwekula South Constituency following a vote recount exercise, which he supervised.

Tumwesigye had earlier been declared the winner by the returning officer after tallying the results following the January 15 General Election.

In a ruling dated February 14, 2026, High Court judge Bonny Isaac Teko absolved the chief magistrate, saying he largely stayed within his jurisdiction and did not stray significantly.

“This court has found no illegality, material irregularity or injustice in the manner in which the Chief Magistrates’ court conducted the vote recount for Buwekula South Constituency. The application for revision is hereby dismissed,” Teko ruled.

Teko added that it is not fair to expect a magistrate handling an emotive vote recount to be 100% accurate so as not to straddle into a petition matters.

The judge said once the magistrate allows a vote recount, there will always be issues bordering matters for an election petition, but they are excusable.

“Any injustice complained about by the applicant (Tumwesigye) can be resolved in an election petition as provided for under section 80 of the Parliamentary Election Act,” Justice Teko said.

Justice Teko emphasised that all the matters of the election from the beginning to the end can become matters of the petition depending on how they are articulated at what stage in the electoral process.

This leaves Tumwesigye with one option to file an election petition as provided for under section 80 of the Parliamentary Election Act in a bid to reclaim the seat.

The bone of contention

Caleb Alaka, Evans Ochieng, Ronald Kwesiga and Andrew Kiryowa represented Mubangizi in the electoral dispute.

Tumwesigye, through his lawyer Paul Ssebunya, argued that the Chief Magistrate rushed the execution of the recount, denying him a fair hearing as provided for under Article 28 of the Constitution.

Ssebunya argued that the presiding Chief Magistrate exceeded jurisdiction by entertaining matters amounting to allegations of electoral offences and substantive election disputes, which can only be determined by way of an election petition.

Ssebunya contended that the Chief Magistrate should not have allowed the vote recount since Mubangizi’s polling agents had signed declaration of results forms without complaint, which was the basis for the declaration of Tumwesigye the winner by the returning officer.

Ssebunya argued that some of the voters’ registers were missing from the ballot boxes, making verification of voter participation impossible. He also argued that some of the ballot boxes had been tampered with.

Background

Following the tallying of the results on January 16, 2026, the Mubende district returning officer had declared Tumwesigye (Independent) the winner with 8,804 votes, while Mubangizi was the runner-up with 7,998 votes. Edward Sempira of the National Unity Platform trailed with 1,915 votes.

Dissatisfied with the results, Mubangizi filed an application for a recount at the Chief Magistrate's Court of Mubende.

Upon hearing from both parties, the Chief Magistrate granted the application. Consequently, a vote recount was conducted on January 28, 2026.

Mubangizi was then declared the winner after obtaining 7,908 votes of the total valid votes. Tumwesigye obtained 7,504 votes while Sempira polled 1,878 votes.

Dissatisfied with the vote recount exercise, Tumwesigye consequently filed an application for revision at the High Court seeking reinstatement of the election results as declared by the returning officer, citing procedural irregularities in the vote recount exercise.