Court upholds Pallisa Woman MP's victory

The High Court in Mbale has upheld the election of Agnes Ameede as Pallisa District Woman Member of Parliament.

Lady Justice Patricia Wasuwa Bassaija on Monday dismissed the petition filed by Catherine Achola, who came second in the February 18th polls.

Through her advocates Nasser Mudiobolwe and Berna Mutamba, Achola filed a petition demanding that court nullifies Ameede's victory and order for fresh elections.

She accused Ameede, a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party of being involved in electoral malpractices contrary to Section 61 of the Parliamentary Election Act.

Among the allegations she made against Ameede were voter bribery and giving donations to voters during the campaign period, something she claims compromised the outcome of the elections.

Achola presented 39 affidavits to support her allegations.

Some of her affidavits included voters who confessed in court of having received money from Ameede as bribery so as to vote her.

In her ruling, Lady Justice Patricia Wasuwa Bassaija stressed that the onus of proof against any allegation of electoral malpractices as cited in Section 61 of the Parliamentary Election Act lies in the hands of the complainant.

She cited the election petition in the Supreme Court filed by Dr. Kizza Besigye vs Yoweri Museveni of 2006, where the then Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki held that it must be proven to the satisfaction of the court that indeed such illegal practices were committed.

She argued that Odoki also held that for the allegation of voter bribery to stand, court should not only rely on the accounts of the witnesses as they are partisan and give biased confessions which may not be true.

She said after thorough scrutiny and evaluation of the submission from the petitions and the affidavits presented in court and the defense submission, she was not convinced.

She accordingly dismissed the petition with costs and upheld the election of Ameede as the legally elected woman Member of Parliament for Pallisa district.

Ameede welcomed the court verdict. She called for unity among her supporters and those of Achola for the good of the district and the NRM party.

Achola has however protested the court judgment and said she will appeal.

However this did little to dampen the mood of Ameede's supporters as most of them were seen in Mbale town jubilating while others made calls to their counterparts who could not make it to Mbale to organize a party to welcome what they termed a ‘hero and mother' of Pallisa.