High Court Upholds Nagaya as Jinja Mayor Despite Tallying Errors

The High Court in Jinja has upheld the election of National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Nagaya Abdulhafidh as the Mayor of Jinja City. Justice Vincent Wagona dismissed a petition filed by National Unity Platform (NUP) rival Kirunda Mubarak Edirisa, who had challenged the outcome of the January 2026 mayoral polls.

During the initial declaration, Returning Officer Flavia Nakasi announced Nagaya as the winner with 17,281 votes against Kirunda’s 15,821, establishing a winning margin of 1,460 votes. However, Kirunda petitioned the court, alleging vote inflation, missing results from nine polling stations, and overall lack of transparency by the Electoral Commission.

In his judgment, Justice Wagona acknowledged that several irregularities occurred during the tallying process. Court uncovered data-entry and typing errors that inflated Nagaya’s tally by 323 votes across two polling stations. Additionally, results from nine polling stations involving 4,275 registered voters had initially been omitted from the final declaration.

Despite confirming these discrepancies, the judge ruled that the errors were not substantial enough to invalidate the election. Court calculations showed that correcting the inflated votes would reduce Nagaya’s winning margin to 1,137 votes, still leaving him ahead. Furthermore, evaluating the valid omitted stations revealed that Kirunda gained net advantages that were ultimately insufficient to close the gap and reverse the outcome.

Justice Wagona emphasized that the proven non-compliance did not undermine the integrity of the process to the point of distorting the voters’ free will. Consequently, the court dismissed the petition and upheld Nagaya’s mayoral status. In a balanced ruling regarding expenses, the judge ordered each party to bear its own legal costs, citing the genuine electoral irregularities and administrative shortcomings proven during the trial.

For more details on this ruling, read the full report on Nile Post.