Gulu University students’ elections tribunal has adjourned the hearing of the election petition by the former guild aspirant Thomas Lapyem Awany.
Lapyem demanded fresh elections over allegations of irregularities. He claimed that the election was unconstitutional and breached Articles 15, 16 and 93 of the Gulu University Guild Constitution of 2012.
Lapyem pointed out in the petition that the election was conducted in a manner that disenfranchised the majority voters and that the adopted electronic voting system had not been evaluated, tested and recommended by the Department of Information Technology of the University.
However, the students’ elections tribunal on Thursday afternoon adjourned the hearing of the petition to March 4th.
Mupora Mutwale, the Dean of Students who chaired the tribunal said the petitioner did not indicate the respondents in the petition to the tribunal.
Ojok James Onono, the Gulu University deputy public relations officer says they decided to adjourn the hearing to enable the petitioner to formally write to the tribunal indicating the specific respondents.
In the guild elections that were conducted online, only 1,770 out of 4,124 registered students cast their votes. Herbert Ayiko from the Faculty of Medicine was elected the Guild President after garnering 607 votes followed by Awany, a Law student who got 399 votes.
