On Monday, Court of Appeal dismissed with costs an appeal which was filed by Gordon Ssematiko Katende challenging the victory of Muhammed Nsegumire Kibedi as the validly elected Member of Parliament for Mityana North Constituency
In the 2021 General Elections, Gordon Sematiko contested alongside Nsegumire (respondent) for the seat of Mityana North MP where Kibedi was declared a winner by the Electoral Commission (2nd Respondent).
The Appellant did not accept the results of the election and accordingly challenged the election results by filling a petition in the High Court at Mubende citing illegal practices of bribery and making false statements concerning the character of the appellant and other offences allegedly committed by Nsegumire.
Sematiko asked court to nullify the election of Nsegumire which court ruled in negative thus leading to the appeal.
The grounds for the appeal were that the learned trial Judge erred in law and fact when he held that the Petitioner failed to prove the offence of bribery to the satisfaction of court and dismissed the Petition, and that there was no evidence of acts of defamation adduced by the witnesses to prove the offence of defamation because they did not state the exact words verbatim.
In their ruling, the three justices of Court of Appeal namely; Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Stephen Musota and Christopher Gashribake, after considering all submissions on record, found no merit in the appeal and thus dismissed it with costs.
“The Judgment, decree and orders entered against the Appellant by the learned trial judge are confirmed and upheld. The first respondent is confirmed as the duly Elected Member of Parliament for Mityana North Constituency as declared and returned by the 2nd Respondent,” court ordered.
In their findings, the justices concurred with High Court judge that there was no sufficient evidence to prove voter bribery and defamation allegations raised by Sematiko.
The judges stated although section Section 68(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act make bribery an offence, the appellant had to prove that a gift was given to a voter by a candidate or their agent and that the same was given with the intention of inducing the person to vote for him.
“The affidavit of Kigundu Paul in support of the Petition was full of allegations of bribery but no proof of the registered status of the allegedly bribed persons and no proof of the agency between the 1st Respondent and the alleged distributor of the bribes (Jane Kaitale).”
They added that whereas he identified persons who received money of between Shs 6,000 and 1,000, he did not attach any evidence to show that the alleged recipients of the money were registered voters.
Source: ChimpReports