The High Court in Kampala has dismissed an election petition filed by National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Waiswa Alex Mufumbiro. Mufumbiro had challenged the election of National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Fredrick Ruhindi as Member of Parliament for Nakawa Division East. According to the court, most of Mufumbiro's allegations were not supported by sufficient evidence.
Mufumbiro had accused the Electoral Commission of declaring the winner based on incomplete results. He cited discrepancies in declaration of results forms, alleged ballot stuffing, and unusually high voter turnout at some polling stations. The court, however, found that the Electoral Commission's failure to include results from 22 polling stations in the final tally did not substantially affect the outcome of the election.
Justice Allan Paul Nshimye delivered the judgment, ruling that Ruhindi had won the January 15, 2026 parliamentary election with 18,575 votes against Mufumbiro’s 15,067. This gave Ruhindi a margin of 3,508 votes. The judge also observed that Mufumbiro relied on photocopies of declaration of results forms that had not been certified by the Electoral Commission.
The judge faulted Mufumbiro for failing to present several polling agents who had signed the disputed declaration forms to explain the alleged irregularities. Only two of the 12 agents whose signatures appeared on the declaration forms were presented as witnesses. The court rejected claims of unusually high voter turnout at some polling stations.
Justice Nshimye established that results from 22 polling stations had indeed been excluded from the final tally sheet. The Electoral Commission’s Returning Officer for Kampala Capital City, Rashid Hasakya, confirmed that the results from the 22 polling stations had not been included. The judge examined the declaration forms from the excluded polling stations and calculated the votes obtained by the two leading candidates.
The court found that Mufumbiro had received 1,072 votes from the 22 polling stations, while Ruhindi obtained 599, giving Mufumbiro an advantage of 473 votes. However, after deducting the 473 votes from Ruhindi’s original winning margin of 3,508, the judge found that Ruhindi would still have won by 3,035 votes had the excluded results been included in the final tally.
The judge dismissed the Election Petition, upheld Ruhindi as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Nakawa Division East, and directed each party to meet its own legal costs. The court concluded that although the Electoral Commission had failed to comply with the law, the irregularity did not substantially affect the election result.
Key points
- The High Court in Kampala dismissed an election petition filed by NUP candidate Waiswa Alex Mufumbiro.
- The court found that most of Mufumbiro's allegations were not supported by sufficient evidence.
- Ruhindi was upheld as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Nakawa Division East.
