Justice Nshimye agreed that issues surrounding Ssenyonyi’s nomination had already been determined in an earlier court decision and could not be reopened.
However, the court faulted the Electoral Commission (EC) for errors in the nomination documents of candidates, saying the mistakes had triggered unnecessary litigation and could potentially lead to abuse of the electoral process.
In a judgment delivered on October 30, 2026, Justice Allan Paul Nshimye dismissed Parliamentary Election Petition No. 11 of 2026, ruling that Bwowe had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the election was conducted in violation of the Parliamentary Elections Act.
Bwowe had argued that Ssenyonyi was illegally nominated because his nomination documents indicated that he was contesting for Nakawa West, which he claimed was a non-existent parliamentary constituency.
He contended that Nakawa West was instead a local government electoral area and that Ssenyonyi was therefore never validly nominated to contest for Nakawa Division West Constituency.
Bwowe, who also contested in the January 15, 2026 election, asked court to nullify Ssenyonyi’s election and declare him the duly elected MP, arguing that he was the only candidate correctly nominated for the constituency.
The Electoral Commission and Ssenyonyi opposed the petition, maintaining that the discrepancy in the constituency name was a clerical error that had been corrected during the nomination process.
They also argued that the matter had previously been determined by the High Court in a pre-election dispute, making it res judicata, a legal principle that bars courts from hearing matters already decided.
Justice Nshimye agreed that issues surrounding Ssenyonyi’s nomination had already been determined in an earlier court decision and could not be reopened.
However, he held that the question of whether the election itself had been conducted in compliance with electoral laws was a separate matter that the court could examine.
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In reviewing the evidence, the judge found that nomination forms issued by the Electoral Commission on October 22 and 23, 2025, indicated that both Ssenyonyi and Bwowe had been nominated to contest for Nakawa West Constituency.
However, the official results return form identified the January 15 election as having been conducted for Nakawa Division West Constituency.
The judge noted that although the discrepancy exposed an error by the Electoral Commission, Bwowe had failed to produce the relevant gazette showing the officially nominated candidates for the constituency.
He said the gazette was necessary to establish the constituency under which the candidates had officially been nominated.
Consequently, the court found that Bwowe had failed to prove non-compliance with the Parliamentary Elections Act, leading to the dismissal of his petition.
Despite dismissing the case, Justice Nshimye criticised the Electoral Commission officials responsible for completing the nomination forms, warning that such errors could create opportunities for abuse of the electoral process.
He directed that, going forward, EC officials should ensure that declaration forms for nominated candidates bear the correct constituency names as gazetted.
The judge observed that the petition had arisen partly from the Commission’s mistake, which had resulted in unnecessary litigation.
As a result, he ordered the Electoral Commission to pay a quarter of the costs incurred by both Bwowe and Ssenyonyi in the case.
Ssenyonyi, who emerged winner of the January 15 poll with 21,761 votes, defeated NRM’s Herbert Anderson Burora, who polled 9,586 votes. Bwowe, who contested on the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) ticket, garnered 271 votes.
The judgment was delivered on October 30, 2026.
