Justice David Matovu, the Mbarara resident High Court judge has dismissed an election petition filed against Reagan Okumu, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aswa County in Gulu district for lack of substantial evidence.
Christopher Acire, petitioned court seeking for the nullification of the victory of MP Okumu over what described failure by the Election Commission (EC) to comply with the electoral laws.
Acire, the former MP for Gulu Municipality in the 9th Parliament, in his petition filed at the High Court in Gulu on May 13, blames his defeat on Okumu and the Electoral Commission.
Acire contends that late last year, the High Court in Gulu ordered the EC to allocate the Forum for Democratic Change party(FDC) symbol to him as the party’s duly nominated flag bearer in the parliamentary elections.
Acire said despite the court ruling, Okumu who is also a member of the FDC but was nominated as an independent went around campaigning as the official FDC party candidate. Acire contended that this caused his (Acire’s) loss in the elections because it confused the electorate. Acire argued that he should be compensated 10 billion shillings by Okumu and the EC.
In ruling today, Justice David Matovu who is at the Gulu high court to listen to election petitions dismissed Acire’s for lack of merit.
The Judge ruled that Acire failed to point out how Okumu or his agents did not comply with the law.
The Judge also ruled that there was no evidence that the election was not free and fair.
He subsequently dismissed the application with cost which is yet to be determined by the court.
The judgement was delivered in the absence of the petitioner. Neither his lawyers from Nabukenya, Mulalira & Co. Advocates were present.
Meanwhile Okumu was present during the delivery of judgement and was represented by Dan Wandera Ogalo of Victoria & Co Advocates.
Okumu won with 16, 859 while Acire who came third garnered 5,316 votes.
