Africa-Press – Uganda. At least 10 incumbent Members of Parliament from Lango Sub-region lost their seats in last Thursday’s General Election.
Of these, four were National Resistance Movement (NRM) members, who were trounced during the party primaries and opted to run as independents; two were NRM official flag bearers, one belonged to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party while one represented Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).
Lango is made up of nine districts and one city.
Of the 10 slots for women MPs, NRM took five seats, FDC one seat, while UPC and Independent got two seats each.
Also, out of 21 positions, for directly elected MPs in Lango, NRM took 10 seats, FDC one, UPC, seven, and independents (three).
Composition
Altogether, NRM has sent 15 MPs to Parliament, UPC (nine), FDC (two) and five were elected as Independents out of the 31 slots in the sub-region.
In Amolatar, the incumbent MP, Ms Doreen Amule, lost the seat to Ms Agnes Atim Apea, the winner of the NRM primaries.
Ms Amule decided to run as an independent in an attempt to secure the seat she previously occupied for five years.
Two other candidates participated in the Amolatar Woman parliamentary seat.
They included Ms Loy Akello of UPC and Ms Collins Angwec (Ind).
Ms Atim was declared the winner after garnering 23,926 votes against 20,174 votes obtained by her closest rival , Ms Amule .
Ms Angwec and Ms Akello managed to garner 7,308 votes and 470 votes, respectively.
In Erute North, FDC’s Charles Angiro Gutumoi was trounced by NRM’s Christine Akello, also known as GwoKadako (Female dog). Mr Jimmy Ebong (Ind) also took part in the race.
The results announced by Mr George Williams Eliau, the Lira District returning officer, placed Ms Akello as the winner after obtaining13,948 votes , Mr Angiro polled 8,625 votes and Mr Ebong garnered 3,010 votes.
In Amolatar, the incumbent MP for Kioga County, Mr Anthony Okello Tango (NRM), lost the seat to FDC’s Moses Okot B’tek. In Dokolo North, Mr Paul Amoru Amiat lost the seat to Mr Moses Ogwal Goli, who was the NRM flag bearer.
In Alebtong, the incumbent Woman MP, Ms Christine Acen Ayo, lost again to Ms Docus Acen, the lady who defeated her during the NRM primaries.
Lira Woman MP Joy Atim Ongom contested for the Lira City woman MP seat and was trounced by Dr Jane Aceng, the Minister of Health.
In Otuke District, the incumbent Woman MP, Ms Sylvia Akello (NRM), was trounced by Ms Susan Abeja.
In Kole North, incumbent Bonny Okello lost the seat to UPC’s Samuel Opio Acuti.
Daily Monitor has learnt that many factors played out in the background, leading to failure of the incumbents from retaining their seats.
Explaining why Ms Amule and Okelllo lost, Mr Fred Ogwang, a political analyst, said Ms Amule, as the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on Defence and Internal Affairs allegedly failed to make a case for her people who were being tortured by the UPDF soldiers deployed to enforce the fishing ban on Lake Kyoga.
Some voters say the MP never intervened despite desperate attempts to contact her.
Other political analysts in the area accuse some MPs of supporting the constitutional amendment to remove the presidential age limit from the constitution to allow President Museveni to seek another term, after clocking the mandatory age of 75 years.
“During the consultations, the people of Amolatar told Mr Okello and Ms Amule not to support the presidential age limit but they acted contrary and voted yes so voters decided to show them the exit,” Mr Ogwang said.
In Dokolo North, the issue of tribalism and political violence was exhibited during the campaigns, which contributed to Mr Amoru’s poor performance.
Mr Denis Obonyo, a resident of Agwata Town Council, said the supporters of Mr Ogwal Goli had turned tribalistic.
He said they started decampaigning Mr Amoru on accusations of neglecting them and concentrating on developing his home area.
“Mr Ogwal’s supporters kept on asking people to vote for their own son who hails from Adwoki parish, Agwata Sub-county in Dokolo where Mr Amoru also lives,” Mr Obonyo said.
In the 2015 primaries, Mr Goli Ogwal contested with Mr Amoru and when he lost, he never contested in the 2016 general election as an independent.
But the story was different when Mr Ogwal defeated Mr Amoru in last year’s NRM primaries.
“The people expected Mr Amoru to respect the verdict but instead decided to contest against Mr Ogwal as an independent candidate,” Mr Obonyo said.
He said the politics of money and political violence was also exhibited during the campaigns.
“Mr Ogwal would go to areas where Amoru had given money and he would double the amount. Voters saw this as an opportunity to get cash,” he said.
Failed to legislate
Mr Jacob Ocen, another analyst, said people had decided to drop incumbent MPs because they had reneged on their primary role of legislation.
Mr Geofrey Abuka ,the LC5 youth councillor in Otuke, attributed Ms Akello’s failure to her close working relations with former Lands minister Daniel Omara Atubo, who people had rejected back in 2011.
He said people decided to give Ms Abeja a sympathy vote because in the 2016, she contested and lost.
Some critics said Mr Angiro lost his seat because he underrated his opponent ,Ms Okello.
For Ms Joy Atim, voters said it was just bad luck because she contested against Dr Aceng, an influential woman loved by the people of Lango.
“They nicknamed her Mama Corona for her role as minister of Health in the fought against the deadly disease,” he said.
Compiled by Bill Oketch, Patrick Ebong, Isaac Otwiii and Charity Akullo.
