By Mulengera Reporters
Dr. Tanga Odoi, the chairman for NRM’s Electoral Commission, has spoken to reporters at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds and refuted media reports that President Museveni has cancelled and nullified the victory of his biological son Collins Tanga as the new Chairman of the ruling party’s youth league. The young man (who will be sitting in CEC) defeated National Youth Council executive committee member Brenda Kiconco who recently was indicted by the IGG over the Shs800m that was stolen and remains unaccounted for.
Kiconco aka Mukiga, who started out in the mid-2010s as a vibrant member of the pro-Mbabazi NRM Poor Youth Movement, has lately been scaling heights inside the ruling party and on the walls of State House. All that notwithstanding, many pundits and NRM youth delegates have been wondering why she was even allowed to remain in the race after such clear criminal indictment for suspected wrongdoing, by the IGG.
She was defeated by Collins Tanga, whose only offence is being Tanga Odoi’s son, by more than 300 votes during the turbulent exercise that raged through the night of Tuesday. Now Tanga says that all this chaos was instigated by fading Kiconco who he calls a social climber. He says that she realized she was going to lose and resorted to cheap politicking and populism whereby she incited delegates to demand for and receive their allowances of Shs700,000 per day before going into voting. The organizers had preferred to give them after voting and now Tanga says that was the only campaign issue Kiconco had. He adds that without such populism relating to delegates allowances, Kiconco would have scored zeroes.
Tanga admits Collins being his son but clarifies that he is an adult of 18 years and more and has a right to vie for office in his own right because he met all the requirements. Dr. Tanga says there is nothing irregular he did that amounted to created electoral advantage for his son-and challenges Kiconco to adduce any evidence to the contrary if she has any.
He adds that to avoid conflict of interest accusations, he kept away from all preparatory processes relating to his son’s race and left the same to be handled by other Electoral Commissioners. Tanga says he spoke to the President and declared everything to him and the H.E. admitted that was all okay and supported his decision to keep away.
Tanga says he only got involved much later on (late in the Tuesday night) after the losing Brenda Kiconco saw defeat coming and resorted to inciting violence which resulted into several NRM EC officials getting badly beaten and their faces bruised. Tanga says that at that point, he rang the President who endorsed his suggestion to personally get involved to rescue his Commissioners who were being beaten like chicken thief, by pro-Kiconco squads. Tanga says he consulted the President who allowed him to call in police and the military who calmed down the situation.
But he advises that it’s now too late for Kiconco to do anything to stop his son and that there is no way the President can legally reverse Collins’ victory. “We have clear laws and guidelines whereby once the results have been declared, there isn’t much anyone can do about it. Not even the President who is party chairman. He is law-abiding and knows how it works, which is why he can’t order cancelation as it has been widely misreported.”
“The best and only now available to that populist [Kiconco] is to appeal to the party’s appeals tribunal and make her case there but there is no merit in what she is saying. She is just a bad loser who actually wanted to bring defiance into our elections,” Tanga said at Kololo. He indicated the President had been misunderstood and misreported because there is no way he can cancel any election results because that is ultra-vires his powers as party Chairman. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
