Voters query illegal parishes in Soroti ahead of by-election

A section of voters have queried illegal parishes of Aloet and Opilyai in Soroti East Division ahead of a by-election scheduled at the end of this month.

The complainants include Mr Micheal Enyangu and Mr Enoch Opio. In July 1 complaint, through their lawyers Kaganzi & Co advocates to the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), they expressed their dissatisfaction over what they called “unconstitutional acts and omissions” of not deleting 5,233 voters from the aforementioned two illegal parishes ahead of the July 28 by-election.

“Following the above mentioned decision of the Court of Appeal, the EC on June 6 issued a programme for the by-election of the directly elected Member of Parliament for Soroti East Division Constituency and the voters in the parishes of Opilyai and Aloet estimated to be approximately 1,337 voters of Opilyai parish and 3,896 of Aloet parish are now slated to participate in this by-election,” reads in part the petition.

“Allowing the same voters from Opilyai and Aloet parishes to participate in the election yet their votes are part of the results declared on January 15, 2021 for the directly elected Soroti West Division Constituency is unconstitutional and contravenes the laws of the country,” they further stated.

According to the complainants, voters of the two parishes would be voting twice if they are allowed to participate in the by-election.

The concerned voters now want the voter registers for Soroti East and West Division constituencies to be rectified. 

Efforts to get a comment by Mr Paul Bukenya, the spokesperson of the EC, were futile by press time.

Background

The seat in contention was previously occupied by Mr Moses Okia Attan of the Forum for Democratic Change party (FDC), but his election was nullified by the High Court on grounds that it was illegal for the EC to reconstitute the boundaries of Soroti City East.