Loser challenges election of eastern youth MP elect

Mbale, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT  |  Sumaya Aliza Balunywa, a former contestant for the Eastern Region Youth parliamentary seat has petitioned the High court challenging the victory of the National Resistance Movement-NRM party candidate, Bernard Odoi Oneni.    

Odoi garnered 967 votes beating his closest rival Sumaya Aliza Balunywa, who scored 448 votes. Through her lawyer of Acadia Advocates Balunywa, says Odoi was ineligible to contest for the position of youth MP because he is 39 years of age and not 30 years as he claimed during nominations. 

She says the election of the Eastern Youth MP was conducted in noncompliance with the provisions of the parliamentary elections Act, 2005 and section 8D of the parliamentary elections Act (17 of 2015) and regulation 2 of the parliamentary special elections (Special interest groups) Amendment regulations No.6 of 2011 because Odoi, who is the first respondent to the suit was not eligible to run as a Youth member of parliament. 

The Electoral Commission and the National identification and Registration Authority-NIRA are second and third respondents to the suit respectively. The petitioner also accused Odoi and NIRA of colluding to alter his birth registration in the National Identification and Register to show that he was born on August 28th, 1991 thereby creating an impression that he was eligible to run as Youth Member of Parliament, which wasn’t true. 

She now wants the High court to issue an order directing NIRA to cancel the registration of Odoi from the National Identification Register and rectify his date of birth indicating that he was born on 28th August 1983 and also declare his election as Eastern Region youth MP illegal. 

Balunywa’s lead lawyer, Robert Bauti, says that they conducted research from Odoi’s former schools and found that he was born in 1982, which puts him at 39 years of age. He says that Odoi lied to the court and Electoral Commission, which is why they want the court to annul his victory and declare Balunywa as the winner of the Eastern Youth MP race.    

Balunywa says that she wants the court to declare her the winner of the Eastern Youth parliamentary seat because Odoi was ineligible to run.   

Efforts to get Odoi’s comment were futile as he could not pick nor return our calls.

Background  

Prior to the elections, the Electoral Commission had canceled Odoi’s nomination that he was ineligible to run for the youth parliamentary race because he was above 30 years of age. However, the High Court Civil Divisions in Kampala reinstated Odoi’s candidature a day to the race.

In his defense, Odoi argued that prior to his nomination, he submitted his National Identity card to the Electoral Commission indicating that he was born on August 28th, 1991 as evidence to prove that he was a youth and upon satisfaction, the EC duly nominated him.    

In his judgment, Justice Emmanuel Baguma, said that Odoi was validly nominated by the Electoral Commission to contest for the Eastern Region Youth parliamentary seat.

********

URN