Court of Appeal has nullified the election of Kyadondo East MP, also FDC member Apollo Kantinti, thrown him out of Parliament and ordered fresh elections.
The development comes after High Court in Kampala presided over by Justice Isabirye Kaweesa, in July 2016, nullified the election of Kantinti on grounds of non-compliance with several electoral guidelines under the Parliamentary Elections Act by the Electoral Commission.
NRM's William Sitenda Sebalu dragged Kantinti, the Electoral Commission and Wakiso district Returning Officer Sarah Bukirwa to court for conniving to commit several irregularities which affected the quality of the election in Kyadondo East in a substantial manner.
Justice Kaweesa found Bukirwa guilty of disenfranchising voters and failing to secure custody of election materials when she refused to account for the whereabouts of declaration forms from seven polling stations in the constituency.
Justice Kaweesa also faulted Bukirwa for failing to file a police report in relation to the seven polling stations whose results she unfairly and unilaterally cancelled.
The Judge further expressed concern over the quality of work by some presiding officers, including one Sempebwa Kato, the presiding officer of Manyangwa TC polling station who confessed on oath that he signed DR forms before the commencement of the voting exercise.
He ruled that in such circumstances of erroneous submission of results in DR forms, it was very difficult to ascertain the winning margin between contenders in the election, where Kantinti was declared winner with 9,005 votes and Sitenda as runner up with 8,679 votes.
The Judge has ordered for fresh elections and the Electoral Commission and Bukirwa ordered to pay Sitenda costs of the petition. However, Kantinti sought help from the Court of Appeal which also threw him out this morning.
