Lucy Achiro, the newly-elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Aruu North Constituency in Pader district has been sued by her rival and former Resident District Commissioner Nabinson Kidega.
Mr Kidega jointly sued Achiro with the Electoral Commission (EC) for alleged noncompliance with the electoral laws in the February parliamentary elections in Aruu North.
Kidega, who contested for the seat on the NRM ticket lost the election to Achiro (Independent) by only two votes. He has petitioned High Court in Gulu seeking for nullification of the results.
Kidega polled 8,577 votes, while Achiro garnered 8,579.
In his December 2 petition, Kidega accuses his rival and the EC of connivance to strip him of victory.
Through his lawyers Ladwar, Oneka & Company Advocates, Kidega contends that he is not satisfied with how the electoral commission conducted the parliamentary elections in Aruu North.
Walter Okidi Ladwar, one of the lawyers representing Kidega told our reporter on Friday that tally was not done as required by the law. Ladwar cited polling stations in Atanga and Laguti where he claims Kidega’s valid votes were declared invalid.
Ladwar who filed the application challenging the outcome of the results, blamed the applicant (Achiro) and her supporters for destroying voting materials as they were preparing to be taken to before the magistrate’s court in Pader for a recount.
Ladwar further contends that his client could have overturned Achiro’s victory had she and her supporters not tampered with voting materials.
Other grounds for the petition are declaration of results before all the votes were tallied, poor tallying and failure to respect court order to for the votes.
The respondent (Achiro) has been given seven days to file for a reply.
But when contacted on Friday, Achiro said she had not yet seen the petition.
Lawyers representing the Electoral Commission meanwhile filed their reply on Tuesday this week.
Recently, Lady Justice Margret Mutonyi, the Gulu resident High Court judge condemned the act of tampering with votes that were bound for a recount before court. She described it as an attack on the judiciary itself by hooligans who do not have respect for the judicial system in Uganda.
The judge also blamed politicians for failure to restrain their supporters which culminated into a running battle between police and supporters of Achiro and Kidega.
The violence was sparked off when Joseph Omona, the Pader District Returning Officer begun to park ballot boxes in a truck in order to ferry them for a recount at the Chief Magistrates court for a recount.
However, the exercise could not go on after hundreds of Achiro’s supporters stormed the police station at about 10am, overpowered the available police officers and destroyed the ballot boxes.
Anti-riot police were forced to fired tear gas and live bullets in the air to disperse angry residents who had raided Pader Central Police Station protesting a court order pushing for a vote recount for Aruu North County Member of Parliament election.
