I didn’t know Fred Nyanzi had challenged my victory -MP Nsereko tells court

Lawyers representing Kampala Central MP Muhammad Nsereko have told court in Kampala that until yesterday, Tuesday, their client had never been informed that his victory had been challenged by Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu of NUP.

Nyanzi, an elder brother to former presidential candidate and National Unity Platform(NUP) leader  Robert Kyagulanyi in March challenged Nsereko’s victory citing ballot stuffing among other grounds.

The election of Kampala Central MP, Mr Muhammad Nsereko (Independent), has been contested by his closest rival Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu of NUP.

In his petition filed on March 10 at Kampala High Court, Mr Nyanzi, the older brother of Mr Kyagulanyi, raises 17 claims which include electoral malpractices.

Nsereko won the January 14 polls with 16,998 votes against Nyanzi’s 15,975.

On Wednesday, when the case came up for the pre-hearing session before Justice Margaret Apiny , Nsereko’s lawyer Bernard Mutyaba told court that his client was not aware of the petition challenging his victory.

“He learnt of it yesterday and only instructed me in the morning,”Mutyaba told court on Wednesday.

The lawyer asked that the matter be adjourned to any other date, adding that by then, they will be ready to proceed with the case.

Whereas Justice Apiny accepted to adjourn the case up to Monday, August, 23, 2021, she warned parties against wasting time but urged the lawyers to comply with the court’s directives to ensure the petition is expeditiously disposed of.

“We expect things to move smoothly so that we dispose of the petition within the shortest time. It is possible if we work as a team that is ready to listen to each other,” Justice Apiny said.

She also warned both parties against coming with supporters to court since this would be a violation of the Covid Standard Operating Procedures.

The case

In his petition Fred  Nyanzi  Ssentamu cites alleged electoral malpractices committed by both the Electoral Commission and Muhammad Nsereko to deny him victory in the January 14 polls.

He says that at 50 polling stations, there were arithmetical errors that the Electoral Commission failed to explain that he says was not compliant with electoral laws.

“Presiding officers and the returning officer deliberately made a wrong entry on the final tally sheet by posting wrong votes at the respective polling station and this affected the final results in the return form for transmission of results to the electoral commission,”Nyanzi says.

According to Nyanzi, there were grave errors in the tallying exercise which he says affected the outcome of the results.

The case returns on Monday, August, 23, 2021.