The High court has dismissed a petition by former Aruu County MP Samuel Odonga-Otto challenging the election of Christopher Komakech.In a judgment delivered on Thursday, November 5, 2026, at the High court sitting in Patongo Town Council, Agago district, justice Fatuma Nanziri Bwanika ruled that Odonga-Otto had failed to prove that the alleged electoral irregularities substantially affected the outcome of the January 2026 parliamentary election.Komakech, who contested on the National Resistance Movement (NRM) ticket, was declared winner with 10,455 votes against 10,429 polled by independent candidate Odonga-Otto. The 26-vote difference became the centre of the court battle.The two politicians have been on opposing sides of election disputes since 2021, when Komakech first defeated Odonga-Otto, ending his long stay as Aruu County MP.Odonga-Otto challenged Komakech’s election, arguing that he had not properly resigned from his employment as a psychiatric nurse at Butabika National Referral Hospital before contesting for parliament.In August 2021, Gulu High court, presided over by justice Tadeo Asiimwe, nullified Komakech’s election and ordered fresh polls. The court found that Komakech had addressed his resignation to the wrong authority, contrary to public service requirements.Komakech and the Electoral Commission appealed against the decision. In April 2022, the Court of Appeal overturned the High court ruling and restored Komakech as the duly elected MP.The appellate court held that Odonga-Otto should have raised the nomination concerns with the Electoral Commission before the election rather than challenging them after losing.Four years later, the two returned to another election contest, with Komakech again defeating Odonga-Otto, this time by only 26 votes.Unhappy with the results, Odonga-Otto first went to the Pader Chief Magistrate’s court seeking a recount. He argued that the margin was within the legal threshold for a mandatory recount.He also questioned the 407 parliamentary votes declared invalid, claiming that 175 votes cast in his favour had been wrongly rejected, partly because of alleged failures of the Biometric Voter Verification Machines.But the recount application ran into difficulties after the court inspected ballot boxes from six polling stations and found problems with their security seals.The affected polling stations were Acholi Pit, Kilak, Bus Park, Adongkena, Lwala and Kinene. Some ballot boxes had broken seals, while others had loose locks or open tops.Chief magistrate Martins Kirya dismissed the recount application with costs, saying the condition of the election materials had compromised their integrity.Odonga-Otto then petitioned the High court, asking it to overturn Komakech’s victory. Among his complaints was that Pader district returning officer Eric Gimei had failed to conduct a recount despite receiving his request.However, justice Bwanika found that the returning officer had declared Komakech winner at 12:48 pm, before acknowledging receipt of Odonga-Otto’s recount request at 1:30 pm.The judge ruled that the returning officer could not conduct a recount after declaring the results. On the ballot boxes, the court acknowledged that there had been shortcomings in ensuring their safe custody. However, it found that Odonga-Otto had not provided sufficient evidence to show that the compromised security of the boxes changed the final results.The judge also rejected the argument that the narrow winning margin alone was enough to overturn the election.“The mere fact that the winning margin in the instant election was only 26 votes was not per se evidence that any alleged non-compliance affected the result of the election in a substantial manner,” Bwanika ruled.The court dismissed the petition and awarded costs to Komakech, who had successfully defended his election. However, the Electoral Commission was not awarded costs because of the lapses identified in its handling of the ballot boxes, leaving Komakech as the Aruu County MP.The post High court dismisses Odonga-Otto’s election petition appeared first on The Observer Media Ltd.