Migereko election verdict set for June 28
The High Court has set June 28 as judgment day for an election case challenging the election of minister Daudi Migereko as the Butembe County MP.
BY TONNY NSOONA AND CHARLES KAKAMWA
The High Court has set June 28 as judgment day for an election case challenging the election of minister Daudi Migereko as the Butembe County MP.
Migereko, the lands, planning and urban development minister, was sued together with the Electoral Commission by the Forum for Democratic Change’s (FDC) Grace Kirya Wanzala over alleged malpractices in the February elections.
The case is before Justice Bill Kainamura.
During the hearing on Monday, Migereko’s lawyer, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, asked court to dismiss the case with costs since the petition was filed late.
Kiwanuka said Wanzala’s lawyers had failed to convince court beyond reasonable doubt on claims of bribery, forgery, disenfranchisement of voters, intimidation, ferrying of voters and use of government resources to campaign.
He added that the people who are alleged to have been bribed lacked evidence to prove that they were voters in Butembe.
On disenfranchising the voters’ register, Kiryowa told court that although 44 people had sworn affidavits claiming their names did not appear on the registers, it was proved that only 10 did.
This followed an application by the petitioner’s lawyer to have ballot boxes from all the 24 polling stations in Bugembe town opened to prove that voters registers were disenfranchised.
On forgery of declaration forms, Migereko’s lawyer said only five out the 133 polling stations were affected.
Kiwanuka argued that going by the tally sheets from Jinja, Migereko would still win with over 513 votes, even if all the votes claimed by the petitioner were given to him.
The High Court has set June 28 as judgment day for an election case challenging the election of minister Daudi Migereko as the Butembe County MP.
Migereko, the lands, planning and urban development minister, was sued together with the Electoral Commission by the Forum for Democratic Change’s (FDC) Grace Kirya Wanzala over alleged malpractices in the February elections.
The case is before Justice Bill Kainamura.
During the hearing on Monday, Migereko’s lawyer, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, asked court to dismiss the case with costs since the petition was filed late.
Kiwanuka said Wanzala’s lawyers had failed to convince court beyond reasonable doubt on claims of bribery, forgery, disenfranchisement of voters, intimidation, ferrying of voters and use of government resources to campaign.
He added that the people who are alleged to have been bribed lacked evidence to prove that they were voters in Butembe.
On disenfranchising the voters’ register, Kiryowa told court that although 44 people had sworn affidavits claiming their names did not appear on the registers, it was proved that only 10 did.
This followed an application by the petitioner’s lawyer to have ballot boxes from all the 24 polling stations in Bugembe town opened to prove that voters registers were disenfranchised.
On forgery of declaration forms, Migereko’s lawyer said only five out the 133 polling stations were affected.
Kiwanuka argued that going by the tally sheets from Jinja, Migereko would still win with over 513 votes, even if all the votes claimed by the petitioner were given to him.