In what might put him in trouble with his boss President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni, a senior minister in government has punched holes in the results of the Soroti City East byelection, suggesting that the ruling party rigged the Thursday, July 28 poll.
Hours after the end of voting in the byelection, the Returning Officer for Soroti City, Christine Eyu declared Herbert Edmund Ariko Okworo of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), who obtained the largest number of votes, to be the elected candidate for Soroti East Division Constituency, Soroti City.
According to the final results as released by the EC, Ariko garnered 9,407 votes, ahead of Moses Okia Attan of the FDC with 8,771 and Pascal Amuriat of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) with 115 votes.
But the FDC has trashed the results, which were declared at Soroti University a few minutes to midnight, given the nature how much its polling agents were harassed and arrested. There were also reports of voter bribery and ballot stuffing.
While that is expected, some did not expect a minister from Museveni’s government to come out and criticize the handling of the election, and even suggest that the opposition candidate won the poll.
But, fresh from the opposition and new in cabinet, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Norbert Mao might be a newcomer that could be keen on shaking Museveni’s tables.
Sworn in as minister only hours to the Soroti election, the Democratic Party (DP) president general now says that the chaos that happened in Soroti City is the reason he and like-minded opposition DP leaders think the cooperation agreement he recently signed with the NRM is a step in the right direction.
Mao has also made it clear that “Attan did not lose.”
“Soroti gives meaning and makes moral sense of the terms of the DP-NRM Cooperation Agreement,” said Mao on July 29, hours after NRM candidate Ariko was declared winner of the byelection.
“Attan did not lose. Patriotic Ugandans won additional justification and urgency to hold the National Dialogue for the Institutional Reforms that the DP-NRM Cooperation Agreement calls for!”
Meanwhile, a live televised show where the Soroti byelection results were being discussed, angry government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo nearly punched and threw Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago out of TV studios for claiming that he had previously shot someone dead. (Read Story and Watch Video Here).
It should also be remembered that police and military officers had broken into the home of FDC MP Adeke, beating up, reportedly pepper spraying FDC leaders and arresting them. (Read Story and Watch Video Here).
