UDA's Shallo to withdraw election petition against Mvita MP Machele

Omar Shallo, who was the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate for the Mvita constituency seat in the August elections, has filed a notice to withdraw his petition challenging the election of Mohamed Machele.

Mr Shallo had sued Mr Machele (ODM), the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the constituency’s returning officer.

Mr Machele was declared winner by the IEBC after garnering 22,611 votes against Mr Shallo’s 11,125. 

In his petition, Mr Shallo had claimed that the elections were marred by irregularities and discrepancies that compromised the overall results.

He also argued that the IEBC had failed to conduct the elections according to Article 81 of the Constitution and the Elections Act that call for free and fair polls.

The petitioner also argued that counting and tallying were characterised by irregularities and fraud and that the IEBC and its returning officer abdicated their constitutional and statutory obligations.

“The checks and balances put in place to ensure integrity of the electoral process [were] violated by IEBC and the returning officer or through their officers, depriving the petitioner legitimate expectation of a free and fair elections,” Mr Shallo argued.

Mr Shallo also claimed that some polling stations were opened too late after the prescribed time and failed to extend voting time to compensate for lost time.

“Failure to open the stations early was ill motivated and done in bad faith to the petitioner’s detriment and that of his voters,” Mr Shallo argued.

Mr Shallo wanted the court to nullify the results and order another election within 60 days.

Mr Machele asked the court to dismiss the petition, arguing that it did not comply with the Elections Act.

He also argued that Mr Shallo had not deposited a Sh500,000 security within 10 days of filing his petition.

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