Arua city mayor renounces NRM, nominated as Independent candidate

Arua, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The Mayor of Arua City Isa Kato has renounced his National Resistance Movement-NRM party membership and been nominated as an Independent candidate for the 2021 general elections, citing massive irregularities in the NRM primaries which have not been addressed.

Kato lost the primaries after polling 19, 600 votes against his challenger Sam Nyakua, the Arua district chairman who obtained 21,300 votes in the two divisions of Arua central and Ayivu in the NRM primaries. However, he rejected the results citing massive bribery and vote-rigging. 

But after waiting for a hearing by the NRM appeals tribunal, in vain, Kato decided to renounce his party membership and get nominated as an Independent candidate for the position of Arua City Lord Mayor. Kato, who wonders how a flag bearer with a pending petition is allowed to get nominated says he will fight the irregularities in the NRM with his supporters in the general elections.

Meanwhile some of the NRM aspirants who also lost ‘unfairly’ in the primaries and have also opted to go independent have forecast a doomed future for the NRM party. According to them, the NRM party failed to provide security for the elections and allowed the process to be messed up.

But Boniface Alioni, the NRM spokesperson for greater Arua has dismissed the claims by the Independent candidates saying the party will whatever it can to deny them victory in the general elections.

Two days to the end of nominations for councillors, LC five chairpersons and Mayors, Arua NRM office has not addressed over 10 petitions prompting more than 10 candidates to go for nominations as independents.

********

URN