Opposition joins scramble for Omoro County seat

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party is considering internal mechanisms to choose a flagbearer in the Omoro County by-election after two of its members expressed interest to carry the party’s flag.
 Mr Benson Oyat, the FDC party general secretary for Acholi, said they will get back to the drawing board to vet the two candidates and come out with one in a few days.
 “It is a process; we cannot determine who lifts our flag overnight, we shall invoke our internal mechanisms to come up with a single candidate. This mechanism involves negotiation among us and also consensus building on a particular candidate that may be good enough to represent us”.

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 Mr Oyat also said the party is ready to welcome other parties to dialogue and front a single candidate.
 “We are ready to sit with any or other Opposition parties and come up with a candidate. We embrace unity of Opposition parties and our target is to take that seat,” Mr Oyat said.
 During a press conference in Gulu City, Mr Terrence Odonga,  and Mr Denis Dick Owani, both members of FDC expressed interest to represent the party .
 Mr Odonga, a former Gulu District engineer, and Mr Owani, a professional accountant, say they will only withdraw interest once they engage with the party for negotiations.
 “If the party handpicks any of us, I will wholesomely support the other because it is in our interest that we keep the party united,” Mr Owani said.

READ: Acholi after Jacob Oulanyah
 The emergence of Mr Owani and Mr Odonga means the seat may not come on a silver-plate for the NRM sole candidate, Mr Andrew Ojok,  the son of late Jacob Oulanyah.
 Five other candidates, besides Oulanyah’s son, have confirmed their interest in the seat which fell vacant following the demise of the former Speaker of Parliament in Seattle, USA last month.
 
Representation
Oulanyah was the Omoro County MP from 2001 to 2005 and then from 2011 until his death. 
 The electoral commission has set May 26 as the date for the by-election.
The other aspirant is Godwin Okello, an Independent, but FDC-leaning.
 Last week, several Opposition political party candidates, including Mr Odonga, who are members of the Puranga clan and had expressed interest in the seat declined to step down in favour of Mr Ojok, who  is also a member of the same clan.

 The candidates held a meeting with the Puranga Chiefdom leader, Mr Jimmy Ocan, who asked them to step down for Mr Ojok.  During the meeting, only Mr George Aligec Lapir, one of the candidates from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, stepped down. 
The meeting that was in Acet Trading Centre in Odek Sub-county was meant to introduce the candidates to clan members and instill a spirit of unity.

 In an interview, Mr Odonga said he is not stepping down in favour of a particular candidate since the Omoro County seat is neither a family nor monarchy to be inherited by Mr Ojok.
 “The people of Omoro should have the freedom to choose any person they like for representation. There is no justification on why a candidate should be handpicked and imposed on them,” he said.

 The chiefdom prime minister, Mr Francis Mawa, clarified to this publication that Oulanyah’s family had earlier fronted his son to vie for the position. 
“The deceased family came out last time clearly that they are fronting the son to finish what his father had started. He was offered to the people of Puranga and we all know this,” Mr  Mawa said.

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The by-election, however, presents a chance to indicate whether there has or has not been an Opposition renaissance after NRM’s massive win in the sub-region in the 2021 polls.
 Results released by the Electoral Commission indicate that the sub-region overwhelmingly voted President Museveni and his NRM party during the 2021 General Election.

Several attempts to seek comments from the National Unity Platform (NUP) regional office in Gulu City on whether they are fielding candidates for the contest were futile by press time.
 But a few days after Oulanyah’s demise in March, NUP party spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi said: “We are discussing among ourselves to see how to prepare for that seat”.
 Mr Secondo Okot Abok, the NUP’s flag bearer in the 2021 contest has not come out to declare interest in the seat, including Alliance for National Transformation’s Julius Okello Opira

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ABOUT OMORO
       Omoro is one of the new districts in Uganda. It was carved out of Gulu District in 2016. The district has one  County - Omoro.  It has three town councils of Opit, Palenga and Acet, of which only Opit is operational.
      There are six old operational sub-counties including Koro, Odek, Lalogi, Ongako, Lakwana, and Bobi and six newly-created sub-counties of Lakwaya, Labora, Orapwoyo, Abuga, Aremo, Akidi.
       According to the 2014 census, Omoro had a population of 190,534 people. But, leaders now estimate the population is about 220,000 people.