Court rules in favour of Jacob L'Okori Oulanyah

Mar 30, 2012

The Court of Appeal ruled that the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob L''okori Oulanyah was validly elected member of Parliament for omoro County

 By Hillary Nsambu

DEPUTY Speaker of Parliament Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah was validly elected Member of Parliament for Omoro County Constituency in Gulu District, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.
 
The court ruled when dismissing as unmerited an election appeal in which former contender for the seat Simon Toolit Akecha was challenging the High Court judgment exonerating Oulanyah and the Electoral Commission of any electoral malpractices in the constituency during the last eletions.
 
Justice Constance Ketaya Byamugisha, who wrote the lead judgment, led the coram that also featured Justices Steven Kavuma and Remmy Kasule. Court registrar Elias Omar Kisawuzi read the judgment on behalf of the court. 
“I am satisfied on the evidence as a whole that the trial judge properly evaluated all the evidence and arrived at a right conclusion that the results of the election in Omoro County Constituency reflected the will of the majority,” Byamugisha said. 
 
In a unanimous decision, the court also agreed with Edmund Wakida, the lawyer representing Oulanyah and Bakaayana, who represented the Electoral Commission that the appellant, Akecha, had failed to satisfy the court with enough evidence that the EC had failed in its statutory duty to conduct the exercise in accordance with law. He had also failed to show that Oulanyah had bribed the voters. 
  
Earlier, Akecha and Oulanyah had contested for the seat of Omoro County Constituency in the last Parliamentary general elections. Oulanyah polled 11044 while Akecha collected 9088.
 
However, Akecha was dissatisfied with the results and a few days after he asked for application for a recount of the ballot papers. The Chief Magistrate of Gulu granted the application, but later the exercise was abandoned on the ground that the ballot boxes had been tampered with.  
 
Akecha then filed a petition in an effort to unseat Oulanyah alleging that the Electoral Commission held the exercise in non-compliance with the provisions and principles of the Constitution and rules governing Parliamentary elections.
 
He also said that the whole process was charaterised by ballot stuffing, intimidation, non-registered voters casting votes and bribery. The malpractices affected the results substantially.
 
Oulanyah and the EC denied Okecha’s allegations and at the end of the trial Justice Rubby Aweri-Opio of the High Court dismissed the petition with orders that each party bears its costs, hence this appeal which has also been dismissed with the same orders.

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