Muyizzi said the court consequently dismissed Ssempijja’s request to extend the filing period and confirmed Kiruluuta as the Member of Parliament for Kalungu East.
The High Court in Masaka has dismissed an election petition challenging the victory of National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Yusuf Kiruluuta Junior Nkerettanyi in the Kalungu East parliamentary election.
The petition was filed by former minister Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, who sought to overturn Kiruluuta’s victory in the January 2026 parliamentary election. The case was heard before Justice Joyce Kavuma.
In an interview after the ruling, Kiruluuta’s lawyer, Counsel Samuel Muyizzi Mulindwa, said the court dismissed the petition after agreeing with the defence that it had been filed outside the statutory 30-day period.
“When we got a chance before this honourable court, we raised a preliminary point of law. We submitted that this is a matter that did not need to go to evidence because it could be determined on matters of law,” Muyizzi said.
He said the defence argued that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition because it had been filed after the prescribed statutory deadline.
“We have been lucky today that court has agreed with all our submissions on this point. It has determined that the petition was filed outside the time within which it ought to have been filed,” he said.
According to Muyizzi, Ssempijja’s legal team had asked the court to exercise its discretion and validate the petition despite it being filed out of time.
However, he said the court declined the request, holding that it did not have residual powers to extend a statutory deadline that Parliament had prescribed for filing election petitions.
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“The petition had applied that, in the event that court finds that the petition was filed outside time, this court exercises its discretion to validate the petition. Court has said it does not have the residual powers to enlarge time scheduled by statute,” Muyizzi said.
He added that the court reasoned that election disputes must eventually come to an end and that extending a statutory filing period would amount to interfering with Parliament’s prescribed timelines.
“The purpose for the legislators having not provided for the enlargement meant this court cannot interfere with the legislative functions but apply the law as strictly as it is,” he said.
Muyizzi said the court consequently dismissed Ssempijja’s request to extend the filing period and confirmed Kiruluuta as the Member of Parliament for Kalungu East.
The dispute over the seat dates back to the January election, in which the Electoral Commission declared Kiruluuta the winner with 15,473 votes against Ssempijja’s 13,219. Ssempijja subsequently challenged the result, alleging irregularities in the counting and tallying of votes.
The legal battle later moved to the High Court after a vote recount at the magistrates’ court was halted when some ballot boxes were found unsealed or apparently tampered with.
The dismissal of the High Court petition leaves Kiruluuta as the confirmed MP for Kalungu East.