A tribunal set up by the ruling National Resistance Movement to look into petitions arising out of the September 4 party primaries has upheld the election of Charles Nsereko Kawuma as the Nakaseke South constituency flag bearer.
Charles Nsereko Kawuma who polled 10792 votes was declared winner of the election in Nakaseke South after defeating Arthur Nkalubo 4,805 votes and Joseph Nyanzi 3,362 votes in second and third positions respectively.
Nkalubo later petitioned the parry electoral commission arguing the election was marred with a number of irregularities and subsequently, the party electoral commission ought to cancel the result.
On Wednesday, the tribunal ruled that there was no proved on the allegations of irregularities and consequently threw out the petition.
“There is no sufficient evidence of intimidation or harassment of the petitioner’s agents or supporters by the respondent or his agent. There is no credible evidence of bribery of voters or election officials,” Ahmed Kalule Mukasa, a member of the tribunal ruled.
The tribunal noted that the evidence was insufficient to annul the election adding that in areas where Nkalubo said there was no election, Nsereko furnished the tribunal with the declaration of result forms to show otherwise.
“Moreover, there is no demonstration by the petitioner of how the allegations even if it were true and which the tribunal finds they are not, affected the result in a substantial manner given the margin of the difference between the candidates,” the tribunal ruled.
“Consequently it is the decision of the tribunal that both petitions fail and are hereby dismissed.
Nkalubo not happy with decision
However, according to the petitioner, the tribunal was not fair in handling the petition, noting that its ruling was influenced by one of the members of the NRM Central Executive Committee.
‘The NRM should look into this issue of some CEC members being related to some candidates. The party should devise means to stopping relatives to CEC members from participating in the elections because it creates undue influence and conflict of interest which is not allowed by the party constitution,” Nkalubo said.
He noted that the issue of conflict of interest and undue influence has not happened in only Nakaseke South but in many other constituencies around the country.
“We have not got justice as we expected. The party must stop such circumstances from happening in the future.”
Earlier, Nkalubo petitioned the NRM electoral commission to ask Rose Namayanja step aside as the party treasurer over conflict of interest since her husband, Charles Nsereko was taking part in the party primaries.
He noted that Namayanja was using her influence to canvass votes for her husband,
