Court of Appeal has thrown out the Election Appeal filed by former DP national Chairperson Muhammed Baswale Kezaala, in which he challenged an earlier judgment of Jinja High Court’s Justice Geoffrey Namudi, who dismissed his petition against the election of NRM’s Majid Batambuze as the Jinja Municipality Mayor.
In his appeal, Kezaala claimed the High Court judge erred by choosing to ignore the evidence he produced in court, before dismissing his petition.
However, the three judges of the Court of Appeal; Justice Richard Buteera, Paul Kahaibale Mugamba and Alfonsi Owinyi Dollo concurred with the findings of the high court judge and dismissed the appeal.
They also ordered Kezaala to pay all the costs that Batambuze incurred both at High Court as well as at the appeal level.
The judges accused Kezaala of among others failing to produce affidavits from all his agents at the polling
stations where he claimed materials were delayed by the Electoral Commission.
They added that if Kezaala’s agents were not contented with the election results, they would have refused to sign the Declaration of Results (DR) forms, yet none of them refused to sign.
On the issue of malicious statements which Kezaala claims were said of him by Batambuze at Busoga Radio Fm, the judges ruled that he never proved these statements as is required in section 73 (1)1 of the Parliamentary Elections Act.
The Court of Appeal ruling was made in the absence of both Kezaala and Batambuze, who both sent representatives.