The Jinja East parliamentary seat hitherto held by Nathan Igeme Nabeta has today been declared vacant by a panel of three appellant court judges.
In 2016 Nabeta was declared as the duly elected Member of Parliament by the Jinja district returning officer Anthony Mwaita, who was later forced to resign after he postponed the declaring of the winner of the elections, and replaced by Sserunjogi Rogers.
And following a petition filed by Paul Mwiru, citing violence and breach of electoral laws, the Jinja High Court declared him as the MP.
The discontented Nabeta however, moved to the Appellate Court seeking redress, faulting the Electoral Commission for failing its duty.
But in their ruling read by the deputy registrar Tadeo Asiimwe, the three appellate judges: Steven Kavuma, Richard Butera and Paul Mugamba ruled that Nabeta was wrongly declared MP in the 2016 elections.
‘’Upon that, we declare Jinja East constituency seat vacant, therefore fresh elections should be conducted,” the Deputy Registrar Asiimwe said.
Mr. Nabeta is one of the 317 legislators who recently voted in favour of age limit bill despite his electorate cautioning him against the move.
The controversial bill that lifted both the upper and lower presidential age limit capped at 75 years and 35 years, was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni on December 27, 2017.
