Why court upheld Nameere's election despite finding irregularities in Masaka vote recount

• Justice Bernard Namanya dismissed Rose Nalubowa's petition challenging Justine Nameere's election as Masaka City Woman MP on October 21, 2026.2.

• The High Court found that the Electoral Commission failed to safeguard ballot boxes and that the Masaka vote recount breached electoral laws.

• The court ruled that the 1,353 excluded votes could not overturn Nameere's 2,326-vote lead, even if all were awarded to Nalubowa.

• Justine Nameere retains her Masaka City parliamentary seat, while Rose Nalubowa must pay the costs of the dismissed election petition.

The High Court in Masaka has upheld Justine Nameere's election as Masaka City Woman Member of Parliament despite finding that the vote recount which overturned Rose Nalubowa's initial victory breached electoral laws.

Justice Bernard Namanya ruled on October 21, 2026, that although the Electoral Commission failed to safeguard ballot boxes and other election materials, Nalubowa had not proved that the irregularities affected the final result.

The judge dismissed Nalubowa's election petition and ordered her to pay the legal costs.

The dispute arose from the January 15, 2026 parliamentary elections, in which Nalubowa was initially declared winner with 25,443 votes against Nameere's 20,324.

However, Nameere challenged the results, arguing that the Electoral Commission had omitted votes from 11 polling stations.

Masaka chief magistrate Abert Asiimwe ordered a recount of all 314 ballot boxes on January 30, 2026. The exercise reversed the results, giving Nameere 25,502 votes against Nalubowa's 23,176.

The new figures handed Nameere victory by 2,326 votes, overturning Nalubowa's initial lead of 5,119 votes.

Nalubowa challenged the recount, citing unsecured ballot boxes, missing ballot papers, irregular counting procedures and the exclusion of results from nine polling stations.

She argued that the discovery of compromised ballot boxes should have stopped the recount rather than allowing the magistrate to exclude the affected polling stations.

In his judgment, Namanya agreed that the recount violated electoral laws because officials continued counting votes despite discovering that some ballot boxes and election materials had been compromised.

He also faulted the Electoral Commission for failing to protect the materials, contrary to its obligations under the Parliamentary Elections Act.

The judge further found that the chief magistrate exceeded his powers when he declared Nameere the winner. He explained that the law requires the returning officer to make that declaration after receiving the recount certificate.

However, Namanya ruled that these violations alone could not overturn the election.

"Although she established that the recount proceedings conducted under the direction of the Chief Magistrate were not fully compliant with the electoral law, she did not prove that the result certified after the recount failed to reflect the democratic choice of the electorate of Masaka City for District Woman Member of Parliament," he ruled.

The judge said Nalubowa failed to provide a polling-station-by-polling-station comparison showing how the recount figures differed from the original results.

She also failed to produce the complete recount proceedings or evidence that she had formally requested the necessary records from the chief magistrate and Electoral Commission.

Namanya said these omissions weakened her case because the court lacked sufficient evidence to establish that the certified recount figures were wrong.

A key issue concerned the nine polling stations whose results were excluded after officials discovered broken seals, missing ballots and other irregularities.

Nalubowa argued that excluding the stations affected thousands of registered voters and could have changed the election outcome.

However, the judge established that the nine stations had 3,886 registered voters, of whom 1,353 votes cast for the two leading candidates were excluded.

Of those votes, Nameere had received 743 while Nalubowa had secured 610.

Namanya explained that the court had to consider the actual votes cast rather than assume that every registered voter had participated in the election.

He then applied what the law calls the substantiality test, which determines whether electoral irregularities were serious enough to change an election result.

The judge reasoned that even if all 1,353 excluded votes were awarded to Nalubowa, her total would rise from 23,176 to 24,529.

Nameere would still lead with 25,502 votes, leaving a margin of 973 votes.

"The exclusion of 1,353 actual votes therefore did not affect the election result in a substantial manner," Namanya ruled.

He cited a previous Court of Appeal decision in which judges upheld an election despite missing ballot papers because the number involved was too small to overturn the winner's lead.

Namanya concluded that Nalubowa had proved violations of electoral procedures but failed to establish that those violations changed the outcome.

He therefore rejected her request to cancel Nameere's declaration and reinstate her as Masaka City Woman MP.

The ruling leaves Nameere's election intact while raising concerns about the Electoral Commission's handling and protection of election materials during recounts.