By Mulengera Reporters
The NRM Elections Tribunal has dismissed a petition filed by Hon. Namoe Stella Nyomera challenging the results of the party’s primary elections for the Woman MP seat in Napak District. The ruling, issued on August 7, confirmed Hon. Nakut Faith Loru as the rightful NRM flag bearer for the constituency.
Namoe Stella had alleged widespread electoral irregularities during the July 17 primaries, accusing Nakut Faith of benefiting from falsified results, use of ineligible voters, blocking her agents from accessing the tally centre, and vote tampering in several sub-counties including Poron, Lorengechora and Iriiri.
She asked the tribunal to cancel the results from those areas and order fresh voting.
But after reviewing all the evidence and listening to both sides, the tribunal found that most of Namoe’s claims were either unproven or lacked enough weight to affect the overall outcome of the election. In Poron, for example, where Namoe claimed that unregistered voters participated in the election, the tribunal said there was no solid proof to support the allegation, noting that all agents signed the final results forms at polling stations without raising any formal complaints.
Namoe also pointed to alleged forged declaration forms from several polling stations, but the tribunal said these accusations leaned towards criminal matters that required expert investigation, not assumptions. And even if the votes from those disputed centers were removed from Nakut’s tally, she would still have maintained a lead.
The tribunal also dismissed claims that Namoe and her agents were blocked from the tally center, saying there was no proper evidence to show that she was denied access or that she raised any official complaint at the time. It further noted that the difference in votes between the two candidates was too wide to be affected by the irregularities raised. Nakut had won by a margin of over 1,400 votes.
Even if all votes from the contested areas had been added to Namoe’s total, she would still have fallen short of beating Nakut.
In the end, the tribunal concluded that the petitioner had failed to prove her case and that the complaints raised did not justify cancelling the election, hence upholding Nakut Faith Loru as the duly elected NRM flag bearer for Woman MP in Napak.
