Garissa Township Member of Parliament Aden Duale has survived an election petition challenging his win and the Petitioner Farah Maalim ordered to pay Sh6 million in costs.
His competitor, Farah Maalim, wanted his win nullified on several grounds including irregularities, bribery and failure to signs prerequisite forms.
In her ruling, Judge Hedwig Ongundi noted that the was lack of enough evidence to nullify the win.
She further noted that from the forms 35A presented in court had no discrepancies and dismissed claims that IEBC officials were biased.
[caption caption="High Court judge Hedwig Ongudi"]
[/caption]
Maalim had told the court that elections in the entire constituency were not free and fair.
He maintained that voters were bribed to vote in a certain way which favoured some candidates and further admitted he had no evidence to back his claims.
"I did not see the bribery or anyone being bribed, however, I saw a crowd negotiating," Maalim told the court during his submissions.
Duale, on his part, maintained that he beat Maalim fairly in the August 8 election.
While defending his win, the Majority Leader noted that the votes he got against his rival were far more than what he garnered in 2013, which he attributed to his development record in Garissa Town.
[caption caption="NASA candidate for Garissa township M.P seat Farah Maalim "]
[/caption]
His lawyer, Ahmednasir Abdullahi noted that Maalim made massive allegations of anomalies but failed to back them with evidence.
