The High Court has dismissed the election petition filed by the National Unity Platform (NUP) party Deputy Spokesperson, Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro challenging the victory of National Resistance Movement candidate (NRM) Fredrick Ruhindi in the Nakawa East parliamentary race.

In a ruling delivered on Friday, October 30th, 2026, the Court dismissed the petition in its entirety, ending the legal contest over the Nakawa East seat. The Court further ordered that each party bear its own costs, meaning it awarded no costs against the petitioner.

Mufumbiro, who was the NUP flag bearer in the highly contested Nakawa East constituency, had gone to court seeking to overturn Ruhindi’s election, alleging irregularities in the electoral process. He asked the court to nullify Ruhindi’s victory and order a fresh election.

However, in his judgment, the presiding judge, Allan Nshimye, found that the petition failed to meet the legal threshold required to warrant the nullification of a parliamentary election.

The Court also held that Mufumbiro and his legal team did not adduce sufficient evidence to prove that the alleged irregularities, if any, affected the final result in a substantial manner as required by the Parliamentary Elections Act.

“The burden of proof in an election petition lies on the petitioner to prove to the satisfaction of the court that non-compliance with the law affected the result. This burden was not discharged,” Nshimye said.

The dismissal with no order as to costs is seen as a lenient decision, as unsuccessful petitioners are often condemned to pay costs of the winning party, which can run into hundreds of millions of shillings. By ordering each party to bear its own costs, the court spared Mufumbiro the additional financial burden.

With this ruling, Fredrick Ruhindi remains the duly elected Member of Parliament for Nakawa East. However, Mufumbiro still has the right to appeal the decision in the Court of Appeal within the statutory timelines if he is dissatisfied with the High Court judgment.