Court Nullifies Kawempe North By-Election Results

The High Court in Kampala has annulled the election of Luyimbazi Elias Nalukoola as Member of Parliament for Kawempe Division North, declaring the parliamentary seat vacant.

Court nullified his victory due to illegal campaign activities on the voting day  and  voter disenfranchisement.

In a ruling delivered by Justice Bernard Namanya via e-mail,  the court  has  ordered the Electoral Commission to conduct a fresh by-election, saying the March 13th election  compromised the Parliamentary Elections Act.

First, Justice Namanya has held that Nalukoola personally violated Section 100 of the Parliamentary Elections Act by campaigning on  the polling day.

Evidence presented by Nambi showed that Nalukoola  appeared at Mbogo Primary School Play-ground and Kazo Angola polling stations on election day, chanted party slogans, and called on voters to support him, actions that disrupted the polling process. 

The Second reason for the nuification of this election  results has been after the court found out  that the Electoral Commission had disenfranchised 16,640 voters across 14 polling stations by failing to count, declare, and include their votes in the final tally. 

The judge has noted that Although voting took place, violence during the vote-counting process led to the destruction of election materials, and the Commission declared  final results without accounting for the affected polling stations. The court ruled that this omission was in direct contravention of the law and had a substantial impact on the final outcome.

 Justice Namanya  has then dismissed Nalukoola’s argument that the results from the affected polling stations would not have changed the outcome, labeling it speculative and unsupported by evidence.

As a result, the court has  issued declarations setting aside the election of Luyimbazi Elias Nalukoola, declaring the Kawempe Division North parliamentary seat vacant, and directing the Electoral Commission to hold a fresh by-election.

The ruling follows a petition filed by Faridah Nambi Kigongo, the runner-up in the by-election, who secured 9,058 votes against Nalukoola’s 17,939. 

However , Nalukoola has a right to appeal before the final court of Appeal while the EC through its legal team led by Erick Sabiiti says they will not appeal and Will follow the judges’ orders as the law gives them 60 days to do.