The newly elected Soroti East Member of Parliament Herbert Edmund Ariko has noted that Thursday's polls, in which he beat his political nemesis Moses Attan have commenced a journey to end opposition dominance in the area.
Ariko’s comments follow his victory in a by-election held on Thursday where he polled 9, 407 votes and defeated his closest rival Moses Attan Okia who had 8,771 votes while Pascal Amuriat, the Uganda Peoples’ Congress-UPC party candidate got 115 votes.
The by-election stemmed from a Court of Appeal decision to nullify Attan's victory after Ariko contested the results on grounds that his strongholds; Aloet and Opiyai wards were erroneously annexed to Soroti West, which he noted disfranchised more than 5,000 voters.
Ariko says that the Soroti East by-election was marred with blackmail and propaganda from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change- FDC, a party that he said has a long-time effect on the new city.
The FDC has dominated the majority of leadership seats in Soroti Municipality since 2006. In the last general election that gave Soroti City three Parliamentary slots, two were taken by FDC while one went to an independent candidate who was also aligned with the same party. The party is equally in charge of the City Council leadership with the City, Division Mayors and several members of their council subscribing to FDC.
This, according to Ariko was a result of the propaganda by the FDC against the NRM achievements in Soroti and Teso. He added that his first role will be to explain to the people of Soroti and demystify the falsehood that has been peddled to them by the opposition to enable Soroti to benefit from several government interventions.
