High Court Rejects Bid to Challenge Moses Magogo’s Win

The High Court has dismissed an application by Mulirire Daniel seeking to overturn an earlier ruling that upheld his disqualification from the Budiope East parliamentary race, allowing incumbent Moses Hashim Magogo to be elected unopposed.

Mulirire had petitioned the court for a review of the decision, arguing that he had been denied a fair hearing because the court relied on an issue that was not part of the original complaint against him before the Electoral Commission (EC).

The dispute arose after voter Yeko Ibrahim challenged Mulirire’s nomination, arguing that he had failed to submit a resignation letter from the Uganda Police Force as required for his candidacy. The Electoral Commission disqualified Mulirire, and the High Court subsequently upheld that decision following an appeal, clearing the way for Magogo.

However, Mulirire argued in his review application that the court had gone beyond the original complaint by questioning the authenticity of his resignation letter, an issue he said had not been raised before the Electoral Commission. He maintained that the complaint concerned whether he had submitted a resignation letter during nomination, rather than whether the document he presented was genuine.

In the earlier ruling, Justice Simon Peter Kinobe had found that there was insufficient evidence to establish that the resignation letter presented by Mulirire had been issued by the relevant Uganda Police authorities.

Mulirire argued that this finding amounted to an obvious error in the court record and warranted a review of the decision. He also attached a newly certified letter to his application in support of his case.

However, Justice Kinobe rejected the application, saying Mulirire was attempting to challenge the substance of the earlier judgment through a review instead of using the appropriate legal process. The judge explained that Mulirire was essentially asking the court to reconsider the evidence, interpret the law differently, consider the newly submitted document and overturn its earlier decision.

Justice Kinobe said the court could not use a review application to reconsider and replace its own judgment, adding that the submission of a certified document after the original proceedings did not, by itself, provide sufficient grounds for a review.

The judge also questioned the timing of the application, noting that Mulirire had filed it seven months after the elections without adequately explaining the delay. He added that the application appeared to be an attempt to bypass the legal procedures and strict deadlines governing election disputes.

According to the judge, the orders Mulirire was seeking could only be pursued through an election petition, rather than an application for judicial review, and that the applicant had failed to demonstrate that the new evidence could not have been obtained and presented earlier through reasonable efforts.

The judge consequently dismissed the application and ordered Mulirire to pay the legal costs incurred by Magogo and the Electoral Commission.