20 ready to vie for FDC MP seats in West Nile

L-R: Mr Fungaro, Ms Bako and Mr Godi

At least 21 candidates were yesterday nominated in West Nile region to contest as flag bearers of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change in the parliamentary race.
In Arua District alone, 13 candidates for MP were nominated yesterday. Moyo District has three candidates for MP seat while Nebbi District registered two candidates.

The nominated candidates are already canvassing for votes in both urban and the rural areas of the region, with voting scheduled to take place tomorrow. In Arua, the District Woman MP, Ms Christine Bako, was nominated for the seat together with her close challenger, Ms Lydia Amaguru.

Embattled Arua Municipality MP Akbar Godi, has three challengers who include; Mr Safi Buvuga, Mr Bosco Onzima and Ms Amina Atako. Mr Kassiano Wadri and Mr Bernard Atiku were nominated unopposed to vie for the Terego and Ayivu seats respectively.

In Adjumani, three candidates for MP seats were nominated. They include Mr Sunday Kizito (unopposed), Ms Hellen Acan and Ms Lilly Dranzoa (Woman MP). In the same district, over 15 NRM supporters defected to FDC after their primaries were marred by massive irregularities.
Defections were also registered in Moyo where Ms Concy Dayo crossed over after she was defeated in the NRM primaries. She will stand on the FDC ticket for the post of District Woman MP.

“There were a lot of irregularities which I cannot accept. So I need transparency in elections,” she said. Mr Hassan Fungarro also went through unopposed, while West Moyo has Mr Godfrey Andevo. Mr Lois Dramadri was unopposed for the Vurra County seat.

However, there was uneasiness when some candidates went through unopposed. Some voters had wanted other contenders to compete against the nominated candidates.
The FDC Electoral Commission chairman, Mr Dan Mugarura, told Sunday Monitor that all the voting materials were in place.

“We shall carry out voting region-by-region because we do not want work overload and this would minimise irregularities,” he said. He advised the nominated candidates to exercise high levels of democracy to protect the image of the party. He noted that if there are irregularities, they must be reported and the matter should be resolved amicably.

The party said it does not want to repeat a similar story like that of NRM primaries where blood was shed amid vote rigging. Earlier, some of the candidates rejected the proposal of mutual agreement to field a single candidate, saying it would create disunity among the party members. It will instead be conducted through electoral colleges. But in Nebbi, many of the candidates preferred consensus and elections would only take place where the idea failed.

Mr Muhammad Adiga, a voter in Oli division said consensus would leave out potential candidates but said democracy would be exercised through the ballot. “This is a kind of discrimination that we cannot allow. We had already said that the process of elections had to be developed without any kind of exclusion,” he said.