The Electoral Comission has declared Ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Herbert Edmund Ariko as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Soroti City East constituency after garnering 9,407 votes.
According to the return form transmission of results statement signed by EC’s Christine Eyu, Ariko beat rival Moses Attan Okia from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who got 8,771 votes.
Speaking to NBS Television, FDC’s Erias Lukwago described the election as “thuggery”.
“Thuggery has happened today. There was no election today. The whole of Soroti was turned into a battlefield. It’s been horror, nothing else but horror, and it’s regrettable,” Lukwago said.
Attan managed to beat Ariko in the urban setting while Ariko got most of his votes from the rural areas of the city.
Meanwhile the Electoral Commission Chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama while speaking before the declaration of results pledged to start Investigations into the matter saying it was unfortunate promising to handle the matter with the law agencies and follow up with the case of a person who damaged a ballot box describing it as an offense since the property belonged to EC.
