The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Alliance for National Transformation (ANT)’s Paul Mwiru challenging the election of NRM’s Nathan Nabeta as Jinja East Member of Parliament.
On Monday, a panel of three justices of the Court of Appeal including Christopher Madrama, Elizabeth Musoke, and Hellen Obura dismissed an application by Mwiru seeking to extend the time within which he could file and serve his memorandum of Appeal to Nabeta.
“Rule 31 is quite clear that the appellant shall lodge with the registrar of the Court of Appeal within 30 days after the filing by him or her of the memorandum of appeal,” the three justices said in a judgment read by the court’s deputy registrar Susan Kanyange.
“The timelines prescribed by rule 83 of the judicature (Court of Appeal Rules) directions are clearly in discord with the timelines in the Parliamentary Elections rules,” the justices ruled.
The judges therefore said that Mwiru filed his appeal late as they reasoned with Nabeta that the same should be struck out and the former ordered to pay costs.
“For the reasons he (Nabeta) gives to which we agree, this application is dismissed and orders to costs given to the respondent (Mwiru).”
This is the third time the battle between the two politicians in Jinja has ended in court. In the previous two times, Mwiru has won.
Nabeta was declared the winner of the January 14 election winner for Jinja East having got 5817 votes against Mwiru’s 5580 in second position.
Mwiru ran to the High Court to challenge the election citing vote-rigging, intimidation of his polling agents and use of Electoral Commission officials to alter results.
The ANT candidate petitioned the Court of Appeal after the Jinja High Court dismissed his election petition for failing to produce sufficient evidence to prove the allegations.
