Five aspirants this morning woken up in the Serere County race as polls kick off to replace the late Bishop Patrick’ Okabe as Member of Parliament in the 11th parliament who perished in a fatal accident alongside his wife Christine Okabe on Monday,19 December 2022.
The five candidates include; Alice Alaso for Alliance for National Transformation(ANT), Phillip Oucor of National Resistance Movement(NRM), Emmanuel Eratu Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Martin Ongaruko and Emmanuel Omoding Independent(NRM leaning and son of the late MP) and Martin Onguraco Independent(NRM leaning).
Speaking to News247 this morning, Electoral Commission spokesperson Paul Bukenya assured the constituents that all the voting materials had been delivered at different polling stations and that the tally center was also set.
“Polling kicked off at most of the polling station. We are set for the elections ,they are taking place already. Campaigns were held successfully and ended on Tuesday. This morning electoral materials have been delivered and the officials are appointed and deployed,” Mr Bukenya said.
He added, “Supervisions teams are on the ground to support. We have accredited observers on political parties and independent candidates, we are set for the election and we have gazette a tally center and all other species related with organizing the elections.”
The voting materials, according to EC include; registers, ballot boxes, ballot papers, Biometric Voter Verification Kits, and basins among others were delivered to the Electoral Commission offices.
Sylvia Cheptegei, the Serere District Returning Officer says that 74,394 people are eligible to vote down from the 75,173 voters that were recorded in the update of the national voters’ register.
During the update of the National Voters’ register, the Electoral Commission registered 577 new voters in Serere County. However, in the 2021 general elections, Serere County had a total of 74,464 registered voters.
Yesterday evening, Kasilo County MP Elijah Okupa was arrested on allegations of campaigning beyond the official time for canvassing support but the vocal legislator insisted that he was training polling agents ahead
Who are the candidates?
Alice Alaso(ANT)
As a teacher, Alaso taught at Teso College Aloet between 1993 and 1997. During this time, she also taught part-time at Saint Mary’s Madera.
After leaving Teso College in 1997, she became a District Gender Officer on the Post-Conflict Recovery Program mainly responsible for Kaberamaido District.
In 2018, Alaso left the Forum for Democratic Change where she had been serving as the Secretary General. Other sources claim that she was fired from the party and the position.
She joined the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) and as of March 2022, she was listed as the party’s Acting National Coordinator. Alaso has been married to Johnson Ebaju since 2007.
Phillip Oucor:
The NRM flag bearer for Serere County, according to his LinkedIn profile, has a diploma in Development Studies from Gulu University and a professional diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
He has worked as head of sales at Crown Beverages Limited, Territory Development Manager at Pepsi and head of distributions and operations at Airtel.
Mr Oucor was the NRM party’s choice in the 2021 parliamentary race. However, with a vote margin of 5,195, he lost the race to Patrick Okabe who had been ejected in the party primaries.
Okabe died last month in a motor accident
Emmanuel Eratu (FDC)
Mr Eratu, 45, is a son of Eric Okiror and Grace Asano of Acilo Village, Alengo Parish, Atiira Sub-county, Serere County. He started his education at Atiira Primary School, went to Soroti Central Secondary School, Soroti SS and later Old Kampala SS.
He holds an undergraduate degree in Development Studies from Makerere University, a diploma in Social Work and Social Administration from Nsamizi Training Institute, diploma in Religious Studies from Maryvale Institute of Religious Sciences in the United Kingdom. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Health at Makerere University. Mr Eratu is also a musician and songwriter, a feat that he got from his parents, who are both local song writers.
Emmanuel Omoding (Independent)
He is the elder son to the late Patrick Okabe. At the time of his father’s death, he had been living in Australia. Mr Omoding was backed to contest by a number of politicians, notable among them, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa. He is riding on the father’s popularity among the NRM structures and the locals whose late father touched their hearts.
Martin Onguruco (Independent)
Mr Onguruco was born in 1976 from Kyere Sub-county in Serere District.
He attended his Advanced Level at Nabumali High School and Ordinary Level at Kololo SS.
He holds a master’s degree in Public Infrastructure Management from Makerere University, a bachelor’s degree in Civil and Building Engineering from Kyambogo University and an ordinary diploma in Building and Civil Engineering from Kyambogo.
He is a member of the Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers.
He has held various capacities at the Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) as assistant engineer for UNRA in Soroti and Arua, and served as the road inspector for Kotido Station.
He has also worked closely with Iteso Cultural Union.
