Kyomya's lawyer Ngaruye Ruhindi asked the court to throw on three grounds which include failure by Gumisiriza to pay court fees on time for his application in time, failure to indicate in the application which specific polling stations where the recount should be done.
The Ibanda Chief Magistrate’s Court has thrown out an application
for a vote recount for the Ibanda North MP seat.
The application was filed by Major David Guma Gumisiriza, the incumbent Member
of Parliament against the winner Xavier Kyooma Akampurira. According
to the results, Kyooma got 13,513 votes against Gumisiriza’s 13,186 votes.
Others in the race were Gilbert Mugisha who got165 votes and Gabriel Semakula who polled 142
votes.
In the application, Gumisiriza says that there was fraudulent tallying of votes
from some polling stations in Ibanda North, which denied him victory.
However Kyooma’s lawyer Ngaruye Ruhindi asked the court to throw
out the application on three grounds which include failure by Gumisiriza to pay court fees on time for
his application, failure to indicate in the application which specific polling
stations where the recount should be done.
Ruhindi also told the court that in the application, Gumisiriza
indicated that the irregularities were in Ibanda South instead of Ibanda North.
Ruhindi asked the court to throw out the application
with costs, which court granted.
In the ruling, Moses Kagoda, the Ibanda Chief Magistrate upheld
the reasons raised by Kyooma's lawyers and dismissed the application with
costs.
Kyooma defeated Gumisiriza in last year’s National Resistance Movement-NRM
party primaries.
Kyooma represented Ibanda in the ninth parliament after defeating Gumisiriza
in 2011 elections. In 2016, reclaimed his seat from Kyooma.
In 2012, Justice Andrew Bashaija acquitted Gumisiriza of murder.
Gumisiriza was charged together with nine others for the death of Moses Ainebyona a
campaign agent of Kyooma.
