Court has advised Kawempe South Member of Parliament, Sebuliba Mutumba and his rivals, Twaha Najja and William Kanyike to settle their election dispute out side court.
Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire today advised the warring parties to first explore the option of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). He notes that exploring that option would be better to resolve the election dispute.
He however says that if the politicians fail court to resolve the dispute the matter will be resolved by court. Lawyers representing the Electoral Commission (EC), Sebuliba Mutumba, Twaha Najja and William Kanyike agreed to explore the option within one week. If the time elapses without a resolution they will return to court.
Twaha and Kanyike filed separate cases before the High Court seeking the nullification of Mutumba arguing that the elections were fraught with irregularities.
The two want court to declare that the Kawempe South elections were not free and fair. They want court to set aside the declaration of Sebuliba Mutumba as the MP for Kawempe South demanding that Sebuliba vacates the seat and order fresh elections.
In the suit, they argue that there was non-compliance with the electoral laws which affected the results of the election substantially. Twaha and Kanyike say that agents of EC grossly inflated and altered the election results to reflect untrue results and in some polling stations the electoral officials refused to issue declaration forms to agents of contesting candidates.
Twaha and Kanyike also accused Kampala District returning Officer, Molly Mutazindwa of declaring wrong results saying that the electoral official connived with Sebuliba’s agents to alter declaration forms at the time of counting. EC announced results from only 137 polling stations, leaving out seven polling stations.
They contest that the principles of transparency of the voting exercise were undermined hence the election results wee affected.
Sebuliba emerged winner in the February 18th election as MP for Kawempe South. He polled 15,149 votes against Najja Twaha who got 15, 905 votes and Kanyike William came in third with 12,100 votes.
All the parties return to court on 1st June to find out whether or not the out of court settlement worked out.
