Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) and other opposition parties are staring at defeat in the Omoro County byelection while the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has commenced celebrations after their candidate Andrew Ojok Oulanyah took an early lead.
Ojok, son to the late MP and 11th Parliament Speaker Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah, was up against five other candidates, including NUP’s Simon Toolit Akecha and Justine Odong of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
The election has been criticized by the opposition as being not free and fair. FDC president Patrick Oboi Amuriat fumed at police after they put a roadblock at Opit, about 100m from the party’s branch office. Amuriat said this was ‘nonsense’ that Ugandans should resist.
People Power Uganda, a pressure group of NUP, said “the state has yet again deployed SFC commandos to take over the broad day election thuggery in Omoro byelection.” There were also arrests of some opposition politicians.
Nonetheless, voting went on, and vote counting is underway. NRM leaders say their candidate Ojok Oulanyah has won. These have started celebrations.
The Omoro County seat fell vacant following the death of Oulanyah in March 2022, barely a year since his reelection as MP and his election as speaker. (Read Story Here).
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