Court orders fresh election for Soroti East MP seat

The High Court in Soroti District on Tuesday ordered for a fresh election for Soroti East Division Member of Parliament seat.
This ruling was made on grounds that the election was not held in conformity with the electoral laws as the matter of city boundaries which were fraudulently altered, denied the petitioner’s voters chance to participate in the exercise.
The Electoral Commission (EC) on January 14, 2021 declared Moses Attan Okia of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Soroti City East with 7606 votes against Herbert Edmund Ariko who got 7167 votes.
Mr Ariko dragged Mr Attan to court and together with the EC, through his lawyer Mr Robert Kirunda.
In her ruling, Justice Anne Mugenyi Bitature said that wards of Aloet and Opiyai were erroneously taken from Soroti City East where they were designated to be by the statutory instrument created by the minister of local government and instead annexed to Soroti City West.
She said the electoral body went ahead to gazzette and as such Mr Attan was ‘illegally’ declared as MP for Soroti City East.
The judge noted that voters were in this case disenfranchised to the benefit of the first respondent (Attan).
Mr Attan who appealed calm after ruling, said that he never participated in the creation of the boundaries, but only contested as required by the Electoral Commission and was duly elected by the people.
“My lawyer is on his way to Tororo for another matter, we shall sit down and discuss the way forward, if it is a by-election we are ready, we shall have you informed,” he told journalists.
Mr Ariko who was not present in court has since crossed from FDC to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Mr Attan becomes the second Member of the 11th Parliament to be thrown out, after Christopher Komakech who also lost seat about two weeks ago, when court ordered for fresh election for the Aruu County South seat.