By Aggrey Baba
NUP’s Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu has refused to let the September 29th High Court’s rejection of his bid to access original Electoral Commission (EC) Declaration of Results (DR) forms close the door on his fight against NRM’s Madina Nsereko Ntale’s Kawempe South election victory in the January 2026 run.
At Wednesday’s hearing of the election petition, Nyanzi’s lawyers asked Justice Faridah Shamilah Bukirwa Ntambi to allow them file a supplementary affidavit from a handwriting and forensic expert to examine alleged alterations, falsifications and switching of election results.
The fresh application followed the court’s decision dismissing Nyanzi’s earlier application seeking orders compelling the EC and other respondents to produce original electoral documents for comparison.
Nyanzi’s legal team, led on Wednesday by Senior lawyer Robert Rutaro in the absence of his learned colleague Alex Luganda, told court that the forensic evidence was not an attempt to introduce a new case, but rather a means of proving allegations already contained in the original petition.
The petition itself challenges the circumstances under which Nsereko was declared winner of the January 2026 Kawempe South parliamentary election. Nsereko was declared with 18,591 votes against Nyanzi’s 11,292.
Rutaro argued that Nyanzi’s case had from the beginning been anchored on allegations of forgery, alteration and interchange of results and that the expert evidence would simply help court establish whether the documents in question had been altered.
He pointed to an alleged discrepancy involving the number of polling stations reflected in different election records. According to the petitioner’s argument, records indicating results from 141 polling stations showed Nsereko with 18,591 votes and Nyanzi with 11,292, yet a certified tally covering 165 polling stations allegedly reflected the same totals.
Nyanzi’s lawyers said they had initially wanted the EC’s originals precisely so that the documents could be compared with copies obtained by Nyanzi’s agents and other candidates before being subjected to forensic examination.
With that discovery application having failed, the legal team now wants an expert to examine the available documents and give court an independent opinion on alleged differences, including handwriting and signatures.
The defence, however, strongly opposed the request, led by senior lawyer and former minister Mwesigwa Rukutana, who argued that Nyanzi knew the evidence he needed when he filed the petition and should have presented it within the prescribed timelines.
Rukutana and other lawyers for Nsereko and the other respondents argued that allowing the supplementary affidavit at this stage would amount to introducing new evidence or effectively amending the petition after the deadline.
But Nyanzi’s lawyers maintained that they were not changing the petition, insisting that the expert evidence would only help prove matters already pleaded.
Unlike last time, Nsereko herself was present in court as her lawyers fought the application.
The matter is expected to continue on October 6, when the judge will give her ruling on the Nyanzi lawyers’ request, with the substantive case scheduled for October 7, keeping the battle over the disputed Kawempe South results firmly before the High Court. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
