Election loser wants regulation on election loss costs

By Nelson Kiva, Desire Amanya

KAMPALA - Parliament has been asked to formulate a regulation that would refrain courts from granting huge court costs to election losers.

Simon Muwanga Lutaaya, a journalist, has since embarked on a public fundraising drive to off-set over sh300m that accrued from losing an election petition.

Lutaaya, on the blessing of the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), unsuccessfully challenged NRM's Kenneth Lubogo for the Bulamogi County parliamentary seat in the 2016 elections.

On February 18, 2016, Lubogo was declared winner after he garnered 19,179 votes against the Lutaaya, who got 16,546 votes.

Lutaaya not satisfied with the election results, ran to court, whereby he lost at both cases at the High Court and Court of Appeal and was ordered to pay costs to both Lubogo and the Electoral Commission (EC).

Lubogo raised a bill of costs amounting to sh296m, before taxation, but this came to sh57m after taxation.

"This is a bill for only costs at the High Court; his bill at the Court of Appeal is yet to be filed and that of the EC. Assuming the EC was awarded a similar figure at High Court that would amount to sh114m or so," Lutaya said.

While addressing journalists at the FDC party headquarters at Najjanankumbi in Kampala on Monday, alongside the party spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, Lutaya said he was a victim of the cancer in the Judiciary, the rationale of punishing election losers with huge court costs to discourage them from further political participation.

He said the judges were making it to appear that it was a wrong decision to seek court redress.

"Yet going to court is one of the civilised ways of avoiding violence that comes with losing elections, it is a promise that keeps supporters hopeful and overtime come to terms with their candidate's loss," he said.

Lutaya added that any actions that seem to discourage the population from running to court carries dire consequences.

"First, the time taken by the courts to dispose off these petitions is psychologically painful and costly.

Secondly, the handling of the appeals exhibits lack of concentration, for example, the panel of justices that handled my appeal wrote in their rulings and so addressed in the same that my case had been handled by Justice Margaret Mutonyi, yet it was Justice Godfrey Namundi," he said.

Lutaaya said many election losers have run out of the country for fear of these huge costs, others have sold all that they own and remained paupers, while others have been committed to the civil prison.

"These include NRM candidates such as the former minister of state for trade, Eng. Nelson Gagawala Wambuzi and Mr Abdul Nakendo, a former MP from Bugiri, who were picked and detained over the same only to be rescued by President Yoweri Museveni," he added.

He added that an LC3 losser in Budondo sub-county in Jinja, who was a flag-bearer for NRM died in civil prison last week and was buried after he failed to pay sh56m in costs over a lost election.

"Many people have since proposed to take me to President Museveni to help me settle the bill with yet known conditions, where does he get the money if all of the election losers ran to him," he wondered.

Lutaaya, who reported that he has since raised sh5m in cash to settle the bill, blames the Police for frustrating a fundraising event he had organised last week for his voters to raise the money.