Odomel is wrong to say Pallisa elections had anomalies
Mar 01, 2006
SIR – We read The New Vision story of February 28, 2006, titled: “Cossy Odomel petitions EC over loss†with surprise, and request to put the record straight.
SIR – We read The New Vision story of February 28, 2006, titled: “Cossy Odomel petitions EC over loss†with surprise, and request to put the record straight.
The story claims the election exercise in Pallisa was handled poorly and as a result over 8,000 people failed to vote. It is interesting that the story only highlights results in one sub-county out of nine.
We would like to put it on record, as voters in Pallisa, that the Electoral Commission handled this poll as well as it could. There was no way one could expect a 100% turn-up. Pallisa County had 67,474 registered voters. Of these, 51,816 cast their ballots. Odomel got 19,090 votes while Louis Opange got 23,143. FDC’s Anthony Adome trailed with 4,904.
Looking at the national pattern, the turnout in Pallisa was as high or even higher than what it was across the country. Instead of crying foul, Odomel should explain why he failed to campaign for the President, embarrassing Movement supporters when we failed to get as many votes as we would have wanted.
Perhaps if the Movement primaries had been fairer, we would not have ended with the debacle we now face. This is the second time Odomel has lost elections in Pallisa.
Surely, the voters cannot be wrong both times! And this time, the difference between Odomel and Opange is higher at 4,053 votes, compared to 2001 when it was about 2,500. Of course the EC needs to style up in many ways, but let us not heap blame even where they tried their best.
John Kamba
Moses Koluo
Pallisa
The story claims the election exercise in Pallisa was handled poorly and as a result over 8,000 people failed to vote. It is interesting that the story only highlights results in one sub-county out of nine.
We would like to put it on record, as voters in Pallisa, that the Electoral Commission handled this poll as well as it could. There was no way one could expect a 100% turn-up. Pallisa County had 67,474 registered voters. Of these, 51,816 cast their ballots. Odomel got 19,090 votes while Louis Opange got 23,143. FDC’s Anthony Adome trailed with 4,904.
Looking at the national pattern, the turnout in Pallisa was as high or even higher than what it was across the country. Instead of crying foul, Odomel should explain why he failed to campaign for the President, embarrassing Movement supporters when we failed to get as many votes as we would have wanted.
Perhaps if the Movement primaries had been fairer, we would not have ended with the debacle we now face. This is the second time Odomel has lost elections in Pallisa.
Surely, the voters cannot be wrong both times! And this time, the difference between Odomel and Opange is higher at 4,053 votes, compared to 2001 when it was about 2,500. Of course the EC needs to style up in many ways, but let us not heap blame even where they tried their best.
John Kamba
Moses Koluo
Pallisa