Reuben Arinaitwe, the Isingiro West County Member of Parliament has asked the court to dismiss an election appeal challenging his victory.
The appeal was filed by Arinaitwe’s rival Anthony Tumwesigye, who was dissatisfied with the ruling in September last year at Mbarara High Court.
While appearing on Tuesday before a panel of judges Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Stephen Musota and Christopher Gashirabake, Arinaitwe’s lawyer Dr James Akampumuza noted that Tumwesigye violated the laws for filing an election appeal by exceeding the stipulated timeline.
Arinaitwe told the court that Tumwesigye filed his memorandum of appeal within 9 days instead of 7 days.
According to court records, Tumwesigye filed his notice of appeal on September 27, 2021, which was later followed by a memorandum of appeal on October 6, 2021. The appeal is bad…
Arinaitwe further questioned the process of filing the appeal where the court registrar certified the same document of the memorandum of appeal well knowing it was out of time.
The panel of Judges said that they would give their ruling on the matter to be delivered on notice.
Tumwesigye challenged Arinaitwe’s victory in Mbarara High Court, on grounds of non-compliance with the electoral laws. He argued that the Electoral Commission deliberately omitted the results from the three contested polling stations of Ruborogota, Nyabugando and Migyera.
However, the election petition was dismissed by Justice Moses Kazibwe Kawumi last year on grounds that the petitioner failed on a balance of probabilities and failed to satisfy the court: to prove that the winning majority of the respondent would have been reduced in such way as to put the victory of the election in doubt.
Arinatwe defeated Tumwesigye with 7,992 votes while Tumwesigye got 7,975 votes.
