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Mwiru loses bid to eject Nabeta from Parliament
Jinja Southern Division East Constituency MP, Mr Nathan Igeme Nabeta (left) and his challenger Paul Mwiru (right) whose election petition was dismissed by court on October 18, 2021. PHOTOS/ Tausi Nakato
Jinja East MP Nathan Igeme Nabeta has retained his parliamentary seat after the court dismissed a petition challenging his victory. The petition was filed by his main challenger Paul Mwiru.
Nabeta won the race with 5,621 votes against his closest challenger, Paul Mwiru who contested on the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) party ticket who got 5,355 votes. But Mwiru challenged the outcome of the polls on grounds that Nabeta connived with Electoral Commission officials to engage in election malpractice.
Mr Mwiru says that the EC manipulated tally sheets to steal his victory and pointed out results from Masese I Polling Station (N-M), which, according to him, were falsified to show that Nabeta got 650 votes out of a voting population of 678 voters who turned up on polling day. He argued that this affected the final outcome in a substantial manner.
Through his lawyer, Peter Walubiri, Mwiru argued that it was impossible for the 678 voters to cast their vote between mid-day when the polling station opened, and 5 pm, when it closed for the directly-elected MPs as it was alleged. They added that if results from the disputed polling station were committed, Mwiru would win the race from the 53 other stations with 5,560 votes against Nabeta's 5,167 votes, a winning margin of 393 votes.
But High Court Judge Issa Sserunkuma dismissed the petition with costs on grounds that Mwiru failed to adduce substantial evidence to support his claims. However, Mwiru aruged that part of his crucial evidence was not considered by the same court, which weakened the merits of the petition.
Nabeta was not physically present in court. But EC lawyer Eric Sabiiti says that the court made a landmark judgement which will help to control the number of petitioners who manipulate evidence to appease the court after suffering losses in an election.
Nabeta has had his victory successfully challenged twice in Court by Mwiru over his alleged lack of requisite academic papers and rigging.
