Agency
Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) candidate Jalameso Fred has ended the parliamentary reign of National Resistance Movement (NRM)’s Denis Hamson Obua in Ajuri County.
Obua, who is the current Government Chief Whip, first joined the Parliament of Uganda in 2006, representing the Northern Uganda Youth constituency, before being elected Member of Parliament for Ajuri County from its creation in 2011 until now.
Results from the repeat election conducted on Tuesday in 17 polling stations in Awei Sub-county and one polling station in Abako Sub-county, combined with results from the 160 polling stations in the January 15 elections, show that Jalameso garnered 16,336 votes. His closest contender and the incumbent, Obua, polled 15,568 votes. Michael Olobo, the Returning Officer, declared Jalameso the winner of the Ajuri County parliamentary seat.
Other candidates included Emmanuel Ongom Okwel of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), who polled 2,874 votes, and independent candidates Tom Jasper Molo and Steven Omara, who garnered 1,585 and 519 votes respectively. The UPC party president, Jimmy James Michael Akena, described the victory as a testament to people’s power and congratulated the people of Ajuri for standing their ground.
Earlier in the day, Akena told journalists that he had deliberately evaded security plans to arrest him, which he said were intended to create space for vote rigging.
On January 15, the Electoral Commission conducted presidential and parliamentary elections across the country, with most results declared the following day.
However, results for Ajuri County were not declared due to complaints of vote rigging and inconsistencies between the results announced at polling stations in Awei Sub-county and those at the district tally centre.
This prompted the Commission to schedule a repeat election in the affected polling stations.
The re-run was conducted under heavy security deployment, with police and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) personnel mounting roadblocks from Corner 4 Trading Centre in Agali Sub-county, Lira District, along the road leading to Awei Sub-county in Alebtong District, as well as on all other access routes into Alebtong District.
