The Court of Appeal is tomorrow (Monday) expected to give its ruling in a case in which former Rubaga North parliamentary aspirant, Moses Kasibante, is seeking court orders to strike out an election appeal lodged by his rival and the current MP Singh Katongole.
Kasibante argues that court has failed to dispose of the case in time. He also claims that Singh failed to take essential steps to prosecute his appeal.
If the court in its ruling concurs with Kasibante’s arguments, then he will be declared the MP and Singh will be thrown out of Parliament.
However, should the court disagree with Kasibante, then the appeal Singh’s lodged challenging the high court judgment that threw him out of parliament and reinstated Kasibante as the lawfully elected MP, will be heard to its conclusion before the final judgment can be delivered.
The much anticipated ruling is expected to be delivered by the registrar of the court Erias Kisawuzi at 10:00am.
Genesis of the case
Kasibante, a former journalist, recently went to Court of Appeal seeking its orders to strike out Singh’s appeal on grounds that he failed to take essential steps to prosecute it within the prescribed 30 days.
According to Kasibante, Singh has taken over five months to file in the record of appeal, which he says is irregular, and should be struck out with costs and be declared MP.
Monday’s ruling will be based on the arguments made by lawyers of Singh and Kasibante on April 10.
Kasibante through his lead lawyer Medard Sseggona, argued that Singh and his lawyers were not vigilant enough to look out and pick the copies of the judgment and proceedings from high Court to enable them formulate grounds for appeal. He argued that the records that they needed to pursue their appeal were ready for collection by December 13 last year and that it was Singh’s duty to pick the copy of the judgment.
On the contrary, Dr James Akampumuza who represented Singh, defended the delay in prosecuting the appeal, citing delay in getting the judgement from the lower court.
Akampumuza argued that he could not file in the grounds to support his client’s appeal since the high court certified the copies of the judgment on March 16 this year. He argued that the law demands that the 30 days period start running on the day the judgment is certified, before saying that he was still in time to file in the record of appeal.
February 18th Election Results
In the February 18 elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) returned Kasibante the victor with 24,054 votes against Singh’s18, 595 votes.
But the Electoral Commission declared Singh the winner with 24,802 votes, while Kasibante polled 22,850 votes.
Kasibante petitioned the High Court on March 30 2011 after a controversial vote recount that overturned his victory in the February 18th polls.
The then Mengo Chief Magistrate Phillip Odoki ordered for the vote recount even after there was a high court order blocking the exercise.
In his ruling, Judge Musoke Kibuuka held that Singh’s victory was based on results of an illegal vote recount at the Mengo Magistrate’s Court, which had no force of law before ordering his exit.
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