The Appeals Court has Tuesday morning thrown out Igara East MP Andrew Martial from the 10th Parliament.
Martial polled 15983 votes in last year’s general election beating Michael Mawanda who was the incumbent MP by about 800 votes. Mawanda garnered 15091 votes.
Unsatisfied with the outcome, Mawanda took the matter to court citing electoral malpractices, including creation of non-gazetted polling stations, ballot stuffing, intimidation, defamation by agents of his opponent and bribery, among others.
Mawanda claimed the irregularities grossly influenced the outcome of the polling exercise.
The decision to throw out Martial from Parliament was reached by judges Egoda Ntende, Richard Buteera and the new deputy chief justice Owiny Odolo.
Mawanda, who served the constituency for one term, stood as an independent NRM-leaning candidate while Martial stood on the NRM Party ticket.
The court ruling, therefore, means that Igara East constituency will hold fresh elections. The ruling NRM party has dominated previous by-elections winning 11 of the 13 so far held. The two went to independent candidates.
