The Court of Appeal has ruled in favor of Mityana Woman Member of Parliament Joyce Bagala, declaring her as duly elected.
The ruling was delivered on Friday morning by three judges Geoffrey Kiryabwiire, Stephen Musota, and Christopher Gashirabake. This squashes an earlier ruling by the High Court, nullifying her election on grounds of voter bribery.
Bagala was dragged to court by her major rival and Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba who cited irregularities in the polling process for the Mityana Municipality.
Nabakooba ran to the High Court claiming voter bribery, threatening of registered voters, intimidation of her agents, and multiple voting among others.
She also faulted the EC presiding officers for conniving with Bagala and her agents to provide voting of unregistered persons.
Nabakooba additionally told the court that Bagala bribed voters using Francis Butebi Ssembusi, father to Mityana municipality MP Francis Zaake who reportedly distributed 200,000 Shillings to Bonny Kalema, Annet Nakaggwa, Annet Alumaiya, and Varitino Sebwarida.
Nabakooba did succeed in the first round in October last year after the Mubende High Court Judge Emmanuel Baguma ruled in her favor and nullified Bagala's election after she failed to produce Butebi in court. However, the ruling was appealed before the Court of Appeal.
Bagala, who contested on the National Unity Platform (NUP) won the January 14, 2021 polls by a margin of 16,000 votes to defeat Nabakooba.
Speaking briefly after the ruling, Bagala now says she is ready to serve the people of Mityana with no reservation.
She adds that Nabakooba should realize by now that the people of Mityana legitimately voted for her.
Meanwhile, Bagala’s lawyer Erias Lukwago hailed the court for its decision. He says this ruling should serve as a lesson for judges who hold onto insignificant matters to nullify elections.
“We are satisfied now, the trial judge misdirected himself on matters of law and that was a miscarriage of justice. And this is a lesson to some of the Judges to appreciate the magnitude of an electoral matter. You come up with a minor detail like there was money given by someone and there was no evidence to show it was given and approved by Bagala,“ - Lukwago said
