The Electoral Commission has delivered voting materials to Serere district, ahead of Thursday’s by-election.
The materials that include registers, ballot boxes, ballot papers, Biometric Voter Verification Kits, and basins among others were delivered on Tuesday 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.
Levy Akonopesa Otim, an agent of Emmanuel Omoding, an independent candidate says that all the voting materials were safe and his camp is ready for polls.
The Serere County Parliamentary By-election has attracted five candidates. They are Phillip Oucor of NRM, Alice Alaso of ANT, Emmanuel Eratu of FDC, Emmanuel Omoding, and Martin Onguruco, both independent candidates.
The seat fell vacant after the death of Patrick Okabe who died in a motor accident in December last year.
Who are those eyeing Serere County seat?
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) has three party leaning candidates in the Serere County by-election. Initially, a rift had emerged as majority NRM leaders from Serere County fronted Mr Emmanuel Omoding, the son of the late Patrick Okabe, the former MP who died in an accident.
Mr Omoding was chosen despite the party having Mr Philip Oucor, who was the substantive NRM party flag bearer.
The two factions failed to harmonise, with Mr Omoding getting nominated as an independent candidate and Mr Oucor remaining as the NRM flag bearer. These were joined by Mr Martin Onguruco, also an NRM leaning independent candidate.
Just like the NRM, the Opposition has also failed to zero down on a joint candidate. There is Ms Alice Alaso of Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) and Mr Emmanuel Eratu of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). The biggest Opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP), has not fronted anyone for this by-election but they have expressed interest in supporting Ms Alaso.
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.
Phillip Oucor (NRM)
He is the NRM flag bearer for Serere County. Based on his LinkedIn profile, he 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.
Alice Alaso (ANT)
She was born on January 21, 1969, in present-day Serere District and she is a teacher by profession. Ms Alaso served in the eighth and ninth Parliament under the FDC party before she lost the election to Hellen Adoa of NRM in 2011.
Ms Alaso holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education from Makerere University. She served as history teacher in Teso College Aloet and St Mary’s Madera. She was later recruited as the district gender officer for Soroti District under the post-recovery programme. In 2018, Ms Alaso left FDC where she had served as the Secretary General for 10 years to join Alliance for National Transformation party, where she is currently serving as the National Coordinator.
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.
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.
