The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Boniface Henry Okot of the National Resistance Movement –NRM was on Tuesday declared the winner of the Northern Region Youth Member of Parliament race.
Okot, 28, garnered a total of 1,280 votes beating Boniface Young of the National Unity Platform –NUP who got 104 votes.
Other candidates who followed are Daniel Obal, an independent candidate who got 75 votes, Kelvin Ocaya of the Alliance for National Transformation –ANT and Patrick Odero of the Forum for Democratic Change party –FDC who scored 10 and 03 votes respectively.
Out of the 1,731 youth delegates from the 41 districts of West Nile, Karamoja, Acholi and Lango Sub –Regions, 1,485 delegates cast their votes while 246 were turned away after they arrived late beyond 4pm limit to the polling station at Pece Stadium in Gulu City.
The Election results were declared at 1:25am by Sarah Bukirwa Hajat, the Northern Region Returning Officer. Upon declaring the results, Bukirwa revealed that the elections exercise was so peaceful and that the invalid votes was very few because of massive voter education that was done by the Electoral Commission.
Meanwhile Boniface Henry Okot who emerged the winner in the race told URN in an interview that his victory is as a result of hard work and persistence he and his campaign team had put in during the campaigns. He said he was able to traverse all the Sub –Counties and Divisions in the 41 districts in the region, something that made him more popular than his other opponents.
According to Okot, his main agenda for the five year –term is to economically empower the youth of Northern Uganda so that they are able to eradicate poverty.
Kelvin Ocaya of the Alliance for National Transformation –ANT who scored 10 votes however alleged that there was some ‘bribing voters’ something he said needs auditing by the responsible authorities.
Boniface Henry Okot hails from Kole District. He completed his under graduate degree in Engineering from Makerere University in 2014 (apparently at the age of 22 years).
Okot was the Youth Council Chairman of Akalo Sub –County in Kole District before joining the MP race. He will take over from NRM’s Oscar Omony in the 11th Parliament.
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