KAMPALA – High Court has fixed December 21st 2020 to pronounce itself on a petition filed by Godfrey Aine Sodo Kaguta against the ruling National Resistance Movement-NRM party for failure to hand him the ticket for the Mawogola North Parliamentary race in Sembabule District.
Justice Musa Ssekaana set the date after Sodo’s lawyers allowed court to accept an application filed his rival Shartsi Kutesa Musherure to be added on the list of respondents. On November 23 2020, Sodo through his lawyer Acardia Advocates sued NRM for failure to announce him as the winner of the Mawogola North parliamentary primary elections.
According to the poll results declared by the Sembabule NRM District Returning Officer, William Katokozi on September 30th, 2020, Sodo polled 17,343 votes against 16,104 votes garnered by Musherure. However, Musherure rejected the results and petitioned the NRM Elections Tribunal arguing that the primaries were marred by gross irregularities.
The tribunal chaired by Enoch Barata failed to take a final decision on the petition and instead forwarded the matter to the Central Executive Committee (CEC) for guidance, which wasn’t provided. CEC also referred the matter to the NRM vice-chairperson, Al-Hajj Moses Kigongo who allowed the two candidates to run as independents. This promoted Sodo to petition the high court seeking a declaration that the decision by the NRM elections Tribunal and CEC were tainted with illegality and procedural impropriety.
Sodo argued that NRM had failed in its obligation to follow and comply with its party constitution and regulations in the conduct of its primaries. Sodo asked court to declare him as the official winner of the party flag. However, last week, Musherure filed an application before the same court through her lawyers led by David Mpanga asking to be included as a respondent to the application in addition to the NRM electoral body and CEC.
She also argued that neither she nor Sodo won the highly contentious Mawogola North NRM party primaries. On Monday, Sodo’s lawyers led by Paul Kutesa told court that they had conceded to Musherure’s request to join the matter as a respondent. Oscar Kihika appeared for NRM while David Mpanga and Brian Kalule appeared with their client Musherure. Accordingly, Justice Ssekaana asked all the parties to file written submissions, saying he will deliver his decision on December 21, 2020, via email.
