The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and its ally, the National Unity Platform (NUP), suffered a huge blow in in the Soroti East byelection after their trusted coordinators and campaigners crossed to President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s NRM just days to voting day.
Thousands of voters will go to the polls in the Soroti East byelection in a race that is said to be tight between FDC’s Moses Attan and NRM’s Herbert Ariko. Museveni was in Soroti to campaign for Ariko on July 25.
“Politics is about a party that can and will always be with the people, solving their problems, including security. “The issue is not about Ariko or any other leader but the political party he or she is affiliated to. As NRM, our objective is service delivery to our people to bring them out of poverty,” Museveni told NRM supporters.
At Moruapesur Primary School welcomed FDC and NUP mobilizers and campaigners who told him they had decided to jump ship from the opposition to government side.
The defectors included: Grace Asio Ongorok, the Soroti NUP mobilizer; Jude Emukule, the Tororo NUP coordinator; Isaac Aekobiya, the NUP Coordinator for the West Nile Sub Region; as well as John Enomu, the former FDC Chairman for Soroti District.
These told the president and NRM supporters gathered at the primary school grounds that they had recently learnt that the opposition would not lead them to the promised land, hence the urgency for them to cross the NRM bus.
Museveni welcomed the ‘big fish’ from the opposition FDC and NUP, saluting them for choosing a party that he said a clear ideology and plan to transform Soroti, Teso and the rest of Uganda.
The president travelled to Soroti to campaign for the NRM candidate a day after opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye beat security in Jinja City to travel to Soroti East to campaign for the FDC candidate. (Read Story Here).
