NUP's Ssenyonyi explains why they are backing FDC candidate in Soroti by-election

The National Unity Platform (NUP) Spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi has described the party’s decision to back the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate in Soroti East as an important step towards opposition unity.

Last week, NUP announced that they will back FDC’s Moses Attan in the upcoming Soroti East by-election and that the party will not field a candidate.

Appearing on NBS Television’s NBS Morning Breeze on Monday, Ssenyonyi said that this is a huge victory, even before the election victory that they expect.

“We are going into the Soroti by-election united. Even before the victory, which I know we shall get. Victory number one is that the forces of change have come together,” Ssenyonyi said.

“We (NUP) would want to have a candidate in the Soroti by-election, but does it make sense to fight our brothers? FDC are our brothers politically.”

The NUP official mouthpiece said that the opposition needs to start acting on the concept of the united forces of change that they have been preaching over the years.

“We had to set the ball rolling and offer leadership. FDC's Attan is part of the forces of change. We are in touch with other leaders, and they are happy about our decision,” he added.

The Court of Appeal ejected Moses Attan from Parliament in May 2022 and declared the Soroti East MP seat vacant.

Court said that the Electoral Commission (EC) failed to conduct free and fair elections.

The judgment followed an appeal by one of the voters who challenged the annexation and transfer of Opiyai and Aloet wards from Soroti East to Soroti West after the nomination of the candidates, which disfranchised and denied over 4,560 voters the right to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Court added that at the time of voter verification, Opiyai and Aloet Awards (polling stations) were verified and confirmed to fall under Soroti East and therefore that sudden change left voters at a loss and confused as to where they belong and whom to vote for as they were presented with ballot papers of strange candidates than the ones they expected to vote for.

FDC again fronted Moses Attan for the re-run in the forthcoming by-election.

NRM not scared by the FDC-NUP “marriage”

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) vice chairman for Buganda region, Godfrey Kiwanda said that the yellow party is not scared about the union between FDC and NUP.

Kiwanda, who was appearing on the same show with Ssenyonyi said that they believe that NRM will win the by-election, describing the opposition unity as inconsequential.

“The addition of NUP to the FDC candidate is just 96 votes. Herbert Ariko was an NRM-leaning candidate even when he stood as an independent in the 2021 General Election. According to what's on ground, we are taking Soroti East this time around,” Kiwanda said.

NRM fronted Herbert Edmund Ariko, a former member of FDC, as their flag bearer for the Soroti by-election.

This website understands that his candidature has been contested inside the NRM, with other cadres saying that they were not given a chance to compete with him fairly for the party’s flag.