Mpigi High Court dismisses Kiyaga’s bid for election documents

Mpigi High Court has dismissed an application by Mawokota North parliamentary election petitioner Kiyaga Hillary Innocent seeking access to election documents held by the Electoral Commission.

Justice Jamson Karemani dismissed the application with costs, saying Kiyaga had failed to make a proper case for the discovery and production of the documents.

Kiyaga had asked the court to order the Electoral Commission to produce official report books, lists of presiding officers, ballot paper accountability forms and declaration of results forms from several polling stations in Mawokota North.

His lawyers argued that the documents were necessary to establish allegations that declaration of results forms had been altered or falsified.

However, the Electoral Commission opposed the application, arguing that the request was too broad and amounted to a fishing expedition, since the applicant had not clearly identified the specific polling stations for some of the documents.

In his ruling, Justice Karemani agreed with the Electoral Commission, saying the documents sought had not been specified with sufficient particularity.

The judge also found that the applicant had not provided sufficient evidence to show that the declaration of results forms sealed in ballot boxes contained altered or falsified results.

The court further held that the applicant’s earlier requests to the Electoral Commission were general and did not clearly correspond to the documents sought in the application.

Justice Karemani therefore dismissed the application with costs.

The main election petition filed by Kiyaga against the Electoral Commission remains pending before the High Court in Mpigi.

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