High Court Upholds Ruth Katushabe's Election as Bukomansimbi Woman MP

The Masaka High Court has upheld the election of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate, Ruth Katushabe, as the Bukomansimbi District Woman Member of Parliament.

In a ruling delivered by email, Justice Rosette Comfort Kania dismissed the election petition filed by the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate, Veronica Nanyondo. The petition had sought to nullify Katushabe’s victory on grounds that the Electoral Commission relied on falsified results.

Justice Kania ruled that the petitioner failed to present cogent evidence to support allegations of forgery concerning seven Declaration of Results (DR) forms. The court noted that the DR forms presented by Nanyondo were uncertified by the Electoral Commission and could not be relied upon as secondary evidence without proof of refusal by the electoral body to certify them.

Furthermore, the court dismissed the reliability of a handwriting expert presented by the petitioner to prove claims of forged signatures among polling agents. The judge pointed out that the expert only examined photocopies rather than original documents, did not meet the agents in person, and relied on handwriting samples collected in his absence.

Justice Kania affirmed that the results from the contested polling stations were accurately tallied and that Katushabe was lawfully declared the winner. Katushabe originally won the closely contested January 15 election with 23,481 votes against Nanyondo’s 23,275 votes, securing a narrow margin of 206 votes. Following the dismissal, the judge ordered that each party should bear its own legal costs.

Read more details in the Daily Monitor.