The court case in which the Luweero Returning officers are facing charges of abuse of office and neglect of duty in regard to suspension of vote recount exercise has failed to take off today. Peter Kasozi and his deputy Flavia Nakassi were arrested on 24th November 2011 shortly after suspending vote recount in the by election of Luweero Woman Member of Parliament and were presented to court on 29th.11.2011 were they were granted bail.
The duo turned up today to start the hearing of the case where they are battling with abuse of office and neglect of duty in regard to ballot boxes that were found tempered with and numbers of ballot jumped from 340-380 which lead to cancellation of the exercise. However hearing of the case hit a snag over the absence of the presiding magistrate Jesse Byaruhanga.
The case in which Peter Kasozi, Luweero District Electoral Commission Returning Officer and his deputy Flavia Nakassi are accused of abuse of office and neglect of duty has failed to take off. The duo was dragged to court by Rebecca Nalwanga, the NRM candidate for Luweero District Woman MP for suspending a vote recount exercise because some of the ballot boxes were tampered with.
Hearing of the case was scheduled to kick off this morning before Jesse Byaruhanga, Luweero chief Magistrate in vain.
The duo turned up in court for the hearing of their case but it didn’t take off because of the absence of the trial magistrate. Richard Birivumbuka, the Resident State Attorney told the duo that the case has been scheduled to December Thursday 22, when the presiding magistrate returns to office.
He explains that the hearing was postponed because Byaruhanga is coordinating the launch of the district coordinating committee for the judiciary. Kasozi and Nakassi who are out on bail declined to comment about the failure of their case to take off.
Kasozi declined to comment saying that the case is still until investigation adding that his comments could jeopardize the hearing. Nalwanga who dragged the duo to court didn’t show up in court today. Nalwanga polled 14915 votes losing to DP’s Brenda Nabukenya who polled 14945 votes. Security is still tight at Luweero Electoral commission offices and police is still guarding the ballot boxes and flies of the by election which are considered as the exhibit in the case.
