The High Court in Kampala has summoned the Nakawa West Member of Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi Besekezi and his rival Mukesh Shukla.
Court presided over by Justice Isaac Muwata on Thursday summoned the two for cross-examination following a request from lawyers for both parties over the applications they respectively filed.
Mukesh who came sixth in the race challenged the decision by the Electoral Commission to declare Ssenyonyi as the winner of the January 14th parliamentary elections held in Nakawa West accusing him of irregularities such as falsification of results. This was in the original petition filed on March 19.
However, on May 10, Mukesh filed an amended petition seeking to introduce new grounds of lack of academic qualifications against Ssenyonyi. He argued that the name under which Ssenyonyi had been nominated was different from the one on his academic records.
According to Mukesh, Ssenyonyi had been nominated as Joel Besekezi Ssenyonyi while academic records indicated that he is Joel Besekezi.
But on August 11, Mukesh filed an application in which he wanted to validate his amended petition since it had been filed out of the stipulated 30 days, without permission from the court.
Mukesh also asked the court to allow him to withdraw the original petition filed in March to remain with one filed in May.
But Ssenyonyi’s lawyers led by George Musisi also filed another application seeking the court to dismiss the request by Mukesh on grounds that it was filed and served to the late, contrary to the governing laws.
The legal team further argued that in the event court permits the withdrawal of the original petition, Mukesh should be condemned to pay the costs since they had already responded to it.
But during the pre-trial, Ssenyonyi was absent forcing Mukesh’s lawyers led by Badiru Bwango to ask the court to summon him such that he is present and be cross-examined over his application.
Ssenyonyi’s lawyers also asked that Mukesh who was in court today should further be in attendance to enable them to cross-examine him as well over his application.
Court has summoned the two to have their applications heard on August 25.
