Court confirms Kayondo is Mukono South MP

Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Fred Kayondo has been confirmed as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Mukono South.

His seat was sealed on Tuesday by the High Court in Mukono which dismissed, for the second time, a petition filed by his rival Wilson Male from the National Unity Platform.

Kayondo, a member of the Democratic Party-DP was declared the winner in 2021 with a tally of 26,512 votes against Male’s 4,831 votes.

But Male petitioned the High Court in Mukono to nullify the results on grounds that he did not have the required number of voters to support his nomination. He added that while Kayondo was nominated as a candidate for the Democratic Party, his campaign posters were printed with symbols and slogans of the National Unity Platform.

Even on polling day, he adds, the ballot papers had the symbols swapped, indicating that Kayondo was the candidate endorsed by the National Unity Platform, an error which not only confused voters but also affected the outcome of the process.

But Justice Olive Kazaarwe dismissed the petition without hearing its merits.

Male appealed against the decision on grounds that the judge erred in law and fact when she held that his petition was incompetent and incurably defective. Kazaarwe was also faulted for having underlooked and cordoned Kayondo’s defective pleadings and failure to consider Male’s submissions.

Last year, the Court of Appeal Justices Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Stephen Musota, and Christopher Gashirabake ordered for fresh hearing of the petition on grounds the Judge erred when she dismissed the petition for having defective affidavits yet she allowed the same from Kayondo and the Electoral Commission.

On Tuesday, Justice Acellam Collins dismissed the petition with costs on grounds that Male failed to prove the allegations.

“Having found that the petitioner failed to prove the allegation in the petition to the satisfaction of the court, the whole petition fails and is hereby dismissed with costs to the respondents. The first respondent is declared the duly elected member of Parliament for Mukono County South Constituency,” Justice Acellam ruled.

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URN