The Chief Magistrate’s Court in Pader has dismissed an application filed by the former Aruu County Member of Parliament Hon Odonga Otto who was seeking a vote recount, citing compromised integrity of several ballot boxes.
Odonga-Otto had challenged the victory of Christopher Komakech of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), who was declared the winner by the Electoral Commission (EC) with 10,455 votes, narrowly defeating Odonga-Otto’s 10,429 votes.
Hon Odonga-Otto, immediately rejected the results, alleging serious irregularities in 12 polling stations. He told the court that 175 votes clearly cast in his favour were wrongly invalidated, largely due to failures of Biometric Voter Verification kits (BVVKs).
He argued that although the machines malfunctioned, voters’ intentions were clearly marked on ballot papers and should not have been invalidated.
Odonga-Otto represented himself in court but was assisted by his lawyer, Kenneth Akena. He further questioned a wide discrepancy in invalid votes, noting that 407 parliamentary ballots were invalidated compared to only 46 invalid votes in the Woman MP race.
While the Returning Officer admitted to procedural errors and apologised, he maintained that the final tally was accurate. Komakech later claimed his actual margin of victory was 65 votes.
The hearing, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Friday, January 23, started around midday due to heavy security deployment. Police and army officers were stationed at EC offices and court premises, and attendance was limited to 15 people, including party representatives and journalists. Several residents attempting to bypass security were arrested.
However, the inspection was delayed after EC officials failed to arrive on time. The court ordered their arrest should they fail to honour the summons. One official later appeared under heavy police escort. But during the inspection, several ballot boxes were found with broken or loose seals.
They included Acholi Pit (EC 1751/96), which had a broken seal. Kilak polling station, which was found wide open and Bus Park polling station (EC 175187), which also had a broken seal. At Adongkena (EC 1832/13), the ballot box had a loose lock, and the top was open. Lwala polling station (EC 1751610) had a seal that was not properly welded, and the top was open, while Kinene polling station (EC 1823227) also had a broken seal.
The respondents’ lawyer, Geoffrey Komakech, argued that once the custody and integrity of ballot boxes are compromised, the law does not allow a recount. He cited legal precedents that require election materials to be intact in order to reliably reflect voters’ choices.
Odonga-Otto maintained that the defects affected only a few ballot boxes out of 115 polling stations and urged the court to compare the contents with the declared results. The session was adjourned twice following heated exchanges between lawyers from both sides. After the ruling, Odonga Otto accused the District Returning Officer, Eric Gimei, of failing to follow procedure despite repeated requests through his lawyers. Gimei admitted the procedural gap, apologised, but later allowed the parties to inspect the ballot boxes using available means.
