The Court has today urged Polycarp Ogwari to leave the position of member of parliament for Agule County with immediate effect.
A panel of three justices, including Fredrick Egonda-Ntende, Eva Luswata, and Oscar Kihika, has ruled in favor of David Ochwa as the rightful winner of the Agule County MP seat.
In the same manner, the court has urged Ogwari to cover the costs for both the lower court and the Court of Appeal.
In the judgment, the three justices were on the same page with Ochwa’s statement saying that Ogwari’s nomination was
“The judges said Ogwari claims to have a certificate that’s equal to what’s needed. But the other side says he didn’t have the right qualifications to be nominated.
Looking at the papers he submitted, they found an O-Level certificate and proof of completing some electrical courses at Uganda Technical College, Elgon. But not having the certificate they needed was a big problem. They said only the National Council for Higher Education can say if qualifications are equal and give a certificate for that, and Ogwari didn’t have that paper when he was nominated.
So, the judges decided that not having that paper made his nomination invalid.
This whole thing started because in the 2021 election, Ogwari, who was running as an independent candidate leaning towards the NRM, was declared the winner for the Agule MP seat with 7,190 votes. But Ochwa, who came in second with 6,908 votes, didn’t think it was fair.
Ogwari didn’t agree with the decision of the High Court Judge and said there were mistakes in how the law was applied and facts were considered. He wanted the court to look into these issues and declare him the winner of the election.”
