By Mulengera Reporters
If you are among those still doubting Government Chief Whip (GCW) Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng’s undisputable kingmaker status, when it comes to commanding politics in Lango sub region, just read this.
Some political sceptics in Lira City, which is Lango’s capital, looked forward to the Tuesday 28th July LC1 village chairpersons’ elections as a perfect opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Aceng’s Thursday 15th January City Woman MP election victory over UPC’s Betty Amongi was a fluke. They had anticipated a red wave situation whereby the UPCs would carry the day, winning more village chairperson races than NRM.
This never happened and instead by the time the last vote was counted, tallied and declared the Aceng proponents had been vindicated and her reputation as the leading kingmaker in what is supposed to be UPC’s cradle had been validated. As if this was a referendum on her January victory, personally Aceng was thickly involved in the LC1 poll in her City.
The ruling NRM, whose undisputed political commander in Lira City is Aceng, carried the day-comfortably winning 102 village chairperson races in comparison to UPC’s 90. This implied political decline for UPC, a party some of whose candidates in that for years could sail through unopposed as majority residents demonized and were ashamed of NRM in that part of the country.
A total of 39 villages were won by independents, a significant majority of whom (31) have since declared loyalty and allegiance to Dr. Aceng and her NRM party. Bobi Wine’s NUP only managed to win one village chairperson race, compared to FDC’s 2. A total number of 238 villages had their races concluded and winners declared.
Only four villages had their polling halted/deferred to allow time for disputes to be harmonized first. When the friendly independents are counted, the NRM camp is claiming to have won up to 133 village chairperson races out of the City’s total of 238 cells/villages.
In a related development, the Lira City polling was largely incident-free to the extent that there was seldom any need for police or any other security agency to intervene. The few chaotic scenes that cropped up were amicably resolved by the EC officials in conjunction with other stakeholders-the candidates, their agents and sponsoring parties.
Local political analysts attributed the harmony under which the poll was conducted to the cooperation of area residents and the maturity candidates and their representatives exhibited. The NRM resounding victory was attributed to team work that was exhibited among party supporters, structure leaders and cessation of hostilities, which always escalate intrigue towards election time.
Even cadres who opted to stand as independents played mature politics and never directed any hostilities towards candidates who had the NRM party flag. They minded their business and maturely conducted their campaigns.
The party leaders and grass root structure coordinators in both Lira City East and West synergized well and this consolidated chances for the desired political outcomes. The challenge for Aceng now, is to ensure that those elected to office prioritize the needs of their respective communities so that voters don’t regret entrusting such core leadership responsibilities to candidates from the ruling party.
Aceng’s other challenge will be how to work towards ensuring that the collaboration, oneness and coordination cadres exhibited during the LC1 polling exercise is maintained through the next five years as those elected aid the delivery of the broader Musevenist NRM socio-economic transformation agenda for the entire Lira City populace.
All said and done, the jubilant ruling party supporters have continued celebrating the outcome as a significant milestone for the Movement with many expressing their appreciation for the inclusive and mature leadership Aceng has ushered in. They are also appreciative of all those who contributed to the peaceful and successful electoral process.
The results underscore the importance of organization, teamwork and community engagement in democratic participation. The local ruling party cadres are also grateful to the NRM leadership at party Secretariat in Kampala for allowing local party structure leaders to manage their own political campaign as opposed to imposing the so-called giants from Kampala and other regions onto them as used to be the case in the gone years. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
