The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Electoral Tribunal has dismissed a petition filed by Hon Chemutai Everlyn the Bukwo District Woman Member of Parliament and Dr Maggie Sabay, affirming Chelangat Everline Tete as the duly elected NRM flagbearer for Woman MP Bukwo District.
In its ruling, the tribunal held that Chemutai Everlyn and Magaret Sabay had failed to provide sufficient evidence to back their claims of irregularities during the July 17 party primaries.
“Although the petitioner raised concerns regarding several procedural irregularities, no sufficient evidence was adduced to demonstrate that the overall conduct of the election violated the NRM Election Regulations in a manner that rendered the process fundamentally unfair,” the tribunal ruled.
It further noted: “Having carefully considered the pleadings, affidavits, and submissions of all the parties, the petitioners are not entitled to the reliefs sought. The evidential threshold necessary to annul the election or warrant a re-election or inclusion of nulfied polling stations was not met.”
Hon Chemutai Everlyn the first petitioner wanted the results which were excluded from the tally be included in the final results or a rerun conducted.
she alleged that the results from kaptererwo sub county were deliberately omitted from the final tally
Hon Chemutai contents that there was no valid basis for the cancellation of results from Kapretwo and kaptererwa parishes. She says the exclusion caused her to lose 1342 voted while the respondent lost 69 votes and inclusion of the omitted results would result in the petitioner winning with a margin of 207 votes
The respondent Tete Everlyn Chelangat alleged that there was manipulation in the two parishes kaptererwo(comprising 11 villages) and manipulation was uncovered and the sub county registration alleged to be the petitioner’s brother along with one village registrar and two respondents own mobilizers were arrested
second petitioner Dr Maggie Sabay claims that there was missing and tampered DR forms, Discrepancies in tally sheets, exclusion of her agents and voter intimidation, prevention of voting and underage voting, inflated results and multiple voting including voter bribery
The tribunal therefore upheld Tete’s declaration as the flagbearer, dismissing Chemutai’s bid for inclusion of cancelled results or a fresh poll.
Following the ruling, Chelangat Everline Tete celebrated the outcome “Petition dismissed, our victory upheld. Congratulations to the people of Bukwo and the NRM.”
In the July 17 NRM primaries, chelangat Everline Tete emerged winner with 18,383 votes (37.7%), defeating incumbent Chemutai Everlyn who polled 17,317 votes (35.5%).
Maggie Sabay came third with 10,805 votes(22.2%), chebeni Paula got 1743 votes(3.6%) while Cheptoyek Olive Toskin finished last with 481 votes (1.0%).
