The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The National Resistance Movement-NRM party has replaced four aspirants in Arua after establishing that they were aged far above the required age for the position they were vying for.
The four, Ramadhan Faraj, Lydia Juriya, Morris Munduga and Nasur Alice won the NRM primaries for female and male youth representatives in Arua Central and Arua City Divisions. But it was later established that they were above 30-years and could be ejected by the National Electoral Commission.
The anomaly was unearthed by their main challengers in the primary elections; Cynthia Asianzu, Doreen Onyiru, Basad Abas and Twaha Yasin, who petitioned the NRM Electoral Commission on grounds that their opponents had flouted the age requirement for the youth representatives.
The NRM investigation later revealed that the four candidates fell out of the age bracket for youths. As such, they were stripped of the party flags which were subsequently handed over to the challengers.
However, the initial winner’s have castigated the Arua NRM Registrar for allowing them to contest, well knowing they had served for two terms in youth positions. They described the process as unfortunate saying they need to be compensated for the expenses incurred during the primaries.
But Tom Amagu, the assistant Arua NRM Registrar said that they did not have any way of verifying the age of the youth aspirants who won the primaries. According to Amagu, the affected youth aspirants were aware of their limitation but concealed the facts until a petition was raised against them.
The petitioners commended the NRM office for exercising fairness and said failure to do so would have left NRM with no candidates in Arua City, a situation they say would be embarrassing to the party.
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