As court petitions challenging the recent parliamentary and local government elections roll in, another MP finds herself on the receiving side of accusations of voter bribery, violence and intimidation in last month’s polls.
The Dokolo Woman MP, Cecilia Ogwal, has been dragged to court by her two-time opponent Ruth Atala Adupa for rigging the elections.
Adupa, a former Dokolo Resident District Commissioner, claims that Ogwal was so desperate for victory that she spent millions of shillings to vote in her favor. She claims that during the elections 20 Ogwal supporters were arrested by the police in the process of handing out cash gifts to voters.
The Dokolo district registrar, Paul Waneke, admits to cancelling results from eight polling stations because of the malpractices in the Dokolo women’s parliamentary elections. He says that at these polling stations, the number of votes cast was much higher than the number of registered voters.
Atala says she will use this evidence and more gathered by her two lawyers to seek a nullification of the election results.
Cecilia Ogwal’s team is fighting back. Her chief campaign mobilize, Moses Odongo Jebidayo, says the evidence he has is that any voter bribery in Dokolo was carried out by Ruth Atala Adupa.
Odongo notes that no results from Okwalo-Ngwen sub-county were declared because election officials there reported numerous cases of bribery by Atala, the National Resistance Movement candidate. He says the NRM managed to buy voters’ support for all parliamentary positions except that of District Woman MP.
Cecilia Ogwal says she should be the one suing Atala for election malpractice. She claims that several UPDF soldiers based in the district were disturbed by the fraud and reported the matter to their commanders, but no action was taken.
The suit against Cecilia Ogwal is the second of its kind in Dokolo District.
Earlier this month Paul Amoru Omiat of the Forum for Democratic Change sued the incumbent Dokolo County MP Felix Okot Ogong for illegally using state resources in his campaign.
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