The Court of Appeal in Kampala has quashed the decision by the High Court that threw Bunya South Constituency MP Hajji Iddi Isabirye out of Parliament and he has accordingly been declared as the duly elected legislator.
The decision was delivered on Tuesday by a panel of three Court of Appeal Justices comprised of the Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, Hellen Obura and Catherine Bamugemeire.
The Judgement stems from an appeal filed by Isabirye together with the Electoral Commission challenging the High Court decision by Lady Justice Susan Abinyo who threw Isabirye out of Parliament following a petition by his rival Robert Ntende.
The electoral commission declared Isabirye of the ruling National Resistance Movement the winner of January 14th 2021 elections in Bunya South in Mayuge District with 19,833 votes against Ntende 's 14, 364 votes.
However, being dissatisfied with the results, Ntende petitioned the Jinja High Court challenging the victory of Isabirye on grounds that he had committed illegal practices during the election period including bribery and giving out donations during campaigns.
The Jinja High Court Judge agreed with Ntende and accordingly threw Isabirye out of Parliament and ordered fresh elections.
But Isabirye and Electoral Commission appealed on four main grounds arguing that the learned trial Judge had erred in law when she failed to properly evaluate the evidence brought before her and as such she erroneously came to wrong conclusions.
These conclusions included among others that a finding by the Judge that there was 100,000 shillings bribe given to Hussein Waiswa, 400,000 given at a rally in Bumwena B village and 150,000 shillings at the home of Scovia Muwandike and other amounts of money given to different groups of people.
But in their decision, the Court of Appeal Justices have set aside Abinyo's decision on grounds that Isabirye gave his defense in relation to the allegations levied against him and it was never challenged by his rival.
As such, the Justices have reasoned that the learned trial Judge missed this because of her omnibus style of evaluating evidence and particularly because of her ommission to consider Isabirye's evidence which went on unchallenged.
The Court has heard that on the days that Isabirye was alleged to have bribed voters of a group called NYA found in Bwondha Town Council, he brought two witnesses who indicated that they were together in Malongo and added that the said group is non-existent.
"We are therefore unable to agree with the findings and conclusion of the learned trial Judge that the respondent proved to the satisfaction of the court that the first Appellant/Isabirye had personally committed the illegal act of giving donations during the period of campaign", said the Justices.
Their decision has been read in open Court by the Constitutional Court Registrar Henry Twinomuhwezi on behalf of the Court of Appeal Justices.