Gulu University Elections Tribunal Adjourns Hearing of Petition

Gulu University students’ elections tribunal has adjourned the hearing of the election petition by the former guild aspirant Thomas Lapyem Awany.

Lapyem demanded fresh elections over allegations of irregularities. He claimed that the election was unconstitutional and breached Articles 15, 16 and 93 of the Gulu University Guild Constitution of 2012.

Lapyem pointed out in the petition that the election was conducted in a manner that disenfranchised the majority voters and that the adopted electronic voting system had not been evaluated, tested and recommended by the Department of Information Technology of the University.

However, the students’ elections tribunal on Thursday afternoon adjourned the hearing of the petition to March 4th. Mupora Mutwale, the Dean of Students who chaired the tribunal said the petitioner did not indicate the respondents in the petition to the tribunal.

According to Mutwale, they decided to adjourn the hearing to enable the petitioner to formally write to the tribunal indicating the specific respondents.

Stella Kijange, the Lawyer representing Awany says that it was an oversight for having not included the respondent in the petition.

Kijange revealed that by early next week, they shall serve the respondents who she declined to mention and shall be set for the hearing on the 4th of March.

In the guild elections that were conducted online, only 1,770 out of 4,124 registered students cast their votes.  Herbert Ayiko from the Faculty of Medicine was elected the Guild President after garnering 607 votes followed by Awany, a Law student who got 399 votes.

Other candidates who contested were Dolphin Alonyo, from the Faculty of Law, Jacob Mukwoswa, from the Faculty of Education and Humanities, Herbert Amooti, from the Faculty of Medicine, Sadic Ssempija and Ivan John Yiga from Faculty of Education and Humanities. They got 65, 62, 24, 13 and 0 votes respectively.