The recent high court ruling which declared Olara Otunnu as the legitimate president of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has thrown a spanner into the works of the candidature of Brenda Atim Kinyera who had nominated as the UPC candidate for the Nwoya woman parliamentary seat.
The trouble for Kinyera stems from the fact that she was nominated as candidate for the Jimmy Akena faction UPC whose ascendency to the UPC president was declared unconstitutional by a court ruling.
UPC party Spokesperson for the Acholi Sub region, Dan Oola Odiya said on Tuesday that Atim who was the National Youth leader of the UPC-Akena faction used the party’s symbol for her nomination making her candidature ‘‘null and void’’ after the court ruling which ruled that Akena’s election had not followed the party’s constitution.
Atim could not be reached for common as her known telephone number was off.
UPC under the TDA – Uganda arrangement has nominated at least 10 candidates on independent tickets after Electoral commission rejected use of the party symbols until court ruling on the leadership dispute in the party.
Oola Odiya said Kinyera is the only one who has been affected by the court ruling.
On Thursday last week, Justice Yasin Nyanzi declared the presidency of Akena illegal, saying he was not elected legally.
Attempts to get a comment from Jessica Adong Ocen, the Nwoya District Registrar for the Independent National Election Commission on the whether Atim will be nullified following the recent court ruling were futile as her phone went unanswered.
Joseph Bbosa, the UPC Vice president told the media on Monday afternoon at Speke Hotel in Kampala that they issued several warnings to party members against following Akena in vain.
Bbosa says the decision extends to all party members who were unlawfully nominated as party flag bearers by the Akena administration for the coming polls.
Dr. Olara Otunnu, the UPC party president says they will reinstate all party organs following the court ruling that nullified Akena’s presidency, to forge a way forward on how to manage Akena and his supporters.
Sam Rwakojo, the Electoral Commission Secretary told the media that they have not yet got the High Court ruling.
On July 10, the UPC delegates’ conference was slated to meet to among others approve Akena’s recent controversial election. It is unlikely the delegates will meet following the court ruling.
