Otaala's hopes of seat recapture dashed

By Anne Mugisa                                                                                                                                                               

The Court of Appeal has dented the hopes of former minister, Emmanuel Otaala to reclaim his West Budama County South constituency Parliamentary seat.

Otaala had successfully petitioned the High Court against the declaration of Jacob Markson Oboth as winner and the Electoral Commission. Oboth, however, appealed to the Court of Appeal against the decision of the High Court.

The three Justices of Appeal concurred that the trial judge failed to properly evaluate the evidence and therefore came to a wrong decision. They are deputy Chief Justice, Alice Mpagi Bahigeine, Constance Byamugisha and Remmy Kasule.

Justice Kasule, who wrote the lead judgment stated: "This appeal is allowed. The judgment of the High Court whereby the election of the appellant (Oboth) as MP of West Budama County South constituency was set aside is hereby vacated.

“It is declared that the appellant, Oboth is elected MP for the constituency having had the majority votes of the electorate in the election held on February 18. 2011."

Otaala, accompanied by his wife Phoebe, was in Court but Oboth was not.

Untallied results

The acrimonious election in the constituency saw Oboth poll 17, 200 votes against Otaala's 16,034. Results from six polling stations however were not included in the tallied elections and this is one of the reasons that Otaala went to the Court.

Otaala complained that voters were disenfranchised, intimidated, harassed and as well as people voting in place of dead people. He said that all these, including violence, substantially affected the result of the election.

‘No evidence’

However, the judge said that though there was evidence of disenfranchisement of the voters in the six polling stations, there was no evidence that was brought to prove that voting took place on behalf of the dead.

He also said there was no evidence to prove that the intimidation, harassment and violence were done with the knowledge of Oboth or his agents.

The court faulted the trial judge for ignoring the evidence that Oboth was even leading in the disputed polling stations. He noted that except one place at Bendo Polling station which was rightfully cancelled, Oboth led in the other five by a massive margin.

He noted that in Panyangasi Primary School B polling station, Oboth polled 258 votes against Otaala's 138, in Rugot Church polling station, Oboth poled 390 to Otaala's 89 and at Mawele Primary School polling station, Oboth got 522 to Otaala's 34. 

More of the results indicated that at Siwa Primary School polling station, Oboth got 172 to Otaala's 48 and at Rubongi Polling Station; Oboth managed 160 votes against Otaala's 89.

He ruled that whatever non-compliance with the electoral laws took place did not affect the results in a substantial manner.

The Court also ordered that Otaala pays Oboth one-third of the costs of appeal and the full costs of the petition in the High Court.