UPC aspirant contests Akena’s election

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Tom Omino, an aspirant for the Uganda People’s Congress-UPC party presidential candidate’s ticket is contesting the election of his rival, Jimmy Akena.

It comes a few days after Akena was declared unopposed after his rivals including Tom Omino, Beatrice Amaro and Denis Enap failed to return their nomination forms.

All presidential aspirants were expected to return their nomination forms on July 3rd, 2020 but only Akena beat the deadline.

According to Omino, the process leading to Akena’s election was illegal, stage managed and contravenes the party constitution.

He also accuses Akena of conniving with some members of his cabinet to raise the nomination fees to Shillings 20 million to avoid competition.

Omino says the decision to revise the nomination fees for presidential candidates should have been discussed and amended by the party’s organs.

He also alleges that Akena didn’t gather signatures from one third of the districts in the country for nomination as required by the party constitution.

Omino has vowed to mobilize UPC party members to boycott the party’s district conference to confirm Akena’s candidature in the 2021 polls.

Akena has since the release of the party’s road map been criticized for raising the nomination fees to 20 million shillings.

However, the UPC secretary general Fred Ebil has since defended the nomination fees arguing that the amount was meant to allow the party to organize credible elections.

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