DP withdraws from Omoro County by-election

The Democratic Party (DP) has announced its decision to pull out of the Omoro County by-election slated to be held this month.

This comes after the party’s flag bearer, Godwin Okello, announced on Thursday that he had withdrawn his candidature.

Okello, was last month, selected by DP as their flag bearer for Omoro County seat that fell vacant following the death of former Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah who died in March.

However, Okello says that due to the need to keep his relationship with the people of Aruu County where he contested as a Member of Parliament in the 2021 elections, he decided to withdraw from the Omoro election.

“Basing on my consultation with the people of Omoro, and also elders of the party, I have decided to withdraw my candidature from Omoro by election as a DP flag bearer. The reason why I did that was because I contested as a member of Parliament for Aruu County and the people of Aruu followed and asked because I am their hope and they asked to keep me in Aruu.” he said in an interview with Urban.

Following the development, DP has further maintained that they will not be fronting another candidate nor supporting any opposition party in the forthcoming Omoro election.

The race to replace late speaker Jacob Oulanyah in Omoro now leaves contest between NRM’s candidate and also son of the late speaker, Andrew Ojok and a multitude of opposition candidates including Denis Dick Owani of FDC, Tolit Simon Akena of NUP and Kiiza Oscar of ANT.

According to the Electoral Commission, nomination of candidates for Omoro seat will be held on May 12 and 13.

Meanwhile, campaigns will run from  May 16 to 24, 2022 before elections are held on May 26.