EC – Nyanzi Petition Trashed
Justice Magret Apiny , the presiding Judge in the election petition involving -NUP’s Fred Nyanzi against Kampala Central MP Muhammed Nsereko and 1st respondent Electoral Commission-EC has again deferred the case and ordered that written submissions are filed.
Justice Apiny has directed the EC to file written submissions of not more than five pages raising the Point of Law and serve Nyanzi not later than Wednesday 25th August 2021.
She has also directed that Nyanzi files and serves their response by August 27 and that any rejoinders be filed and served by 30th August 2021.
This follows a request by the EC to have the election petition against Nsereko thrown out.
The EC, just like Nsereko maintains that the Kampala Central MP was not served papers challenging his victory by his rival Nyanzi.
Eric Sabiti the EC Lawyer says:”He is an eventual winner of an election, he was declared as such, how do you present in proceedings where he is not a party? So we really cannot proceed in the trial for a matter where the beneficiary is not in court, because the cardinal principle of natural justice says that you cannot condemn a party unheard”.
EC – Nyanzi Petition Trashed
On Monday this week, neither Nsereko nor his lawyers appeared in court, only Nyanzi the petitioner, and the EC lawyers who are the 2nd respondent in the petition.
This is the second time that Nsereko has refused to show up in court. On Monday last week, Nsereko failed to appear in court and his legal counsel Mutyaba Bernard told the court that his client was never with served papers in relation to the said petition.
He told the court that his client asked him to appear in court after hearing the matter on various media platforms.
However, Nyanzi also a brother to the NUP strong man Bobi wine who was present in court, alongside his lawyers
dismissed the claims as lies.
Nyanzi’s s lawyer Justine Ssemuwaya told the court that Nsereko was indeed approached and served but he just threw away the papers while at the garden city in Kampala.
In Nyanzi’s petition, he dragged the EC to court for failing to observe electoral laws, citing that the presiding officers didn’t submit results from seven polling stations and that Declaration forms-DR forms had irregularities in the number of votes.
A frustrated Nyanzi has declared that the EC is instead spoiling his case: ”We are afraid that the EC is being one-sided and acting for the 3rd respondent who is Nsereko, which is wrong, the EC is supposed to defend itself on its own irregularities, We don’t know why they are acting on behalf of the 3rd respondent who is stubborn and has refused to file his defense up to now. We served him and he is aware of the matter, his advocate told us the other time he just got to know about the matter a day before the matter yet the case has been in existence for the last 4 months.”
