JINJA – The Jinja Chief Magistrate’s court has dismissed an application demanding for a vote recount in the Jinja City Mayoral seat.
The application was filed by Robert Kanusu, the former National Resistance Movement-NRM flag bearer who was defeated by National Unity Platform’s-NUP, Peter Kasolo.
Kasolo won the race with 11,899 votes followed by Forum for Democratic Change’s-FDC Frank Nabwiso with 10,398 votes while Kanusu garnered 9,810 votes.
However, Kanusu’s lawyer, Martin Asingwire argued that there were discrepancies in the declaration of results forms in 22 polling stations, which robbed Kanusu victory.
Kanusu further alleged that, during the process of tallying results, his client attempted to notify the returning officer, Jennifer Kyobutungi about the anomalies but she instead paid a deaf ear.
However the Electoral Commission’s lawyer, Patrick Wetaka told the court that, Kyobutungi swore an affidavit in reply stating that, the applicant and his agents were present during the tallying of results, where the results of his fellow contenders’ declaration of results forms tallied with those being read out by EC officials.
While delivering her ruling, the Jinja Chief Magistrate Catherine Agwero stated that Kanusu lacked specific figures of the ballot papers which he wanted EC to recount and that he had not indicated in his application what exactly the court should address.
Meanwhile, Kasolo’s lawyers led by Alex Luganda accused the applicant of attempting to manipulate the court into granting him victory, yet he lacked clear evidence to show cause.
