2021 Election Petition Statement

Hon. Ivan MASABA 

I contested in the 2021 general elections for Member of Parliament Northern Division -Mbale City, where I emerged 1^st out of 10 candidates, I was however not declared winner by the Returning Officer “Charles Robero” who asked me to go to Court if I had evidence.

The Returning Officer with help of Brigadier Joseph Balikudembe and other security officers (Reference to New Vision publication of 16/1/2021 dubbed “Army takes over Mbale Tally Center.”) turned “Wambede Seth Kizangi Massa” NRM candidate who had come third in the race as the victor.  

Dissatisfied with the results, we filed a petition through the Wameli & Co. Advocates at the Uganda High Court – Mbale Circuit hoping to get justice.

The crux of the matter resolved around one polling station “Makosi T/C polling station” out of the 149 polling stations in the constituency.  

Makosi T/C polling turned 100% as per the Declaration of Results Form, which was complete falsification of results as there was Non-compliance, irregularities and illegalities that contravened with electoral laws which included; Ballot stuffing, Multiple voting, preticked ballots papers and violence mounted on my agents and known supporters by Wambede Seth Kizangi Massa and his supporters aided by the officials of the electoral commission.  

We filed cogent evidence in the petition and my prayers were to have the falsified results of Makosi T/C polling station expunged from the final tally which had affected my results in a substantial manner, removal of falsified results would put me in the lead by 130 votes.  

We had proof that there was no 100% voter turned as I adduced evidence of;

2 death certificates of voters who had passed on before elections, though were four dead persons in total.  

Persons who are in the register but never turned to vote as they migrated to other regions.

Violence records with Police references and medical reports attached.

Persons who witnessed violence meted against my agents and supporters

Persons who turned to vote and found when the ballot papers for directly elected Member of Parliament were finished by 2:00pm while for other positions were on going.  

It was therefore not true that all voters voted at Makosi Polling station as alleged.  

The Judge at the High Court “Justice Joyce Kavuma” dismissed our case that we had filed insufficient evidence.  

We appealed to the Court of Appeal where we appeared the; Deputy Chief Justice Richard Butera, Justice Hellen Obura and Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.  

Our legal team KBW & Co. Advocates prepared and presented our appeal sighting nine grounds.  

On the 4/5/2022, we received a Notice of Judgement inviting as to court on 5^th,May 2022, we were shocked that our judgement was held back and not read to us claiming it was not ready which was not true, we later learnt that a directive had been issued not to declare me as MP Northern Division, we tried everything under our power but “ABOVE” dodged meeting us.  

On the 17^th, June 2022, we were again invited to court to receive another judgement which we believed was altered in the favor of respondents, which was indeed true.  

The unfairness sighted were;

Unlike other Judgements, our evidence was not re-evaluated as required by law, Judges kept defending decisions of the High Court Judge instead of handling the matters independently.  

The judgement is bent towards defending the respondents and issues of the appellant ignored yet is the aggrieved party.  

The both judgements are a replica of the Respondents submissions, at some point you realize that the judge is defending the respondents.  

The issues that were abandoned at the High Court, and we never appealed against “Nambagala Abdu death certificate” were resurrected by the judges and relied upon to come up with final decision of dismissal leaving out the other credible death certificates which would annul the falsified results.  

The perusal through other judgements clearly shows ours was fought to fail on purpose, forexample, All judges signed on one page as if they all wrote the judgement, the format of contact is quite different, e.g., the order is Appellant, Respondent and finally Court decision. In our judgements at both courts, the format sights Respondents and Court decisions without sighting the appellant’s submissions.  

Court did not rely on any independent laws to defend their decisions but rather kept adopting the submissions of respondents and agreeing with them.  

The aforementioned unfairness led to a miscarriage of justice for the people of Northern Division. “We were cheated at all avenues we thought we would get justice”  

Our Petitions were dismissed with costs, At the High Court I was billed 267,000 000 by the

Seth Wambede Kizangi Massa, I managed to challenge it to 51,000,000, whereas the Electoral Commission asked for 68,000,000 but we agreed to settle at 19,400,000 for both the High Court and Court of Appeal.  

The above are the terrible hardships I faced as a Statesman who found oneself in the hands of a corrupt judicial system.

During and after Court, I have come face to face with cruel propaganda that I sold out, which is a fallacy, personal attacks, emotional & financial strains, and all manner of intimidation. This is all done to frustrate me, but am instead more encouraged to pursue and subdue them.  

My major confidence is in God and the overwhelming support I hold among the voters.  I am contesting again in the 2026 elections and am sure of victory given the extensive knowledge and experiences I attained from the previous election.