Emmanuel Omoding, the son of the late Patrick Okabe, was declared the winner of the Serere County parliamentary by-election last night.
Sylvia Cheptegei Nangendo, the Serere District returning officer, declared Omoding the winner with 15,638 votes, while his closest rival, Phillip Oucor of NRM, got 13,206 votes.
Alice Alaso of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) came in third with 3,339 votes. Others included independent Martin Onguruco (2,523) and FDC’s Emmanuel Eratu (1,252).
Omoding is one of the five children of the late MP Patrick Okabe, who died in an accident last year. Okabe perished in an accident along the Mbale-Tirinyi highway together with his wife, Christine Okabe.
Okabe’s five children are all living in the United States and Australia. They only returned to bury their father and mother.
At the burial, the deputy speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, introduced Omoding to the mourners as his father’s replacement.
Tayebwa’s endorsement caused mixed reactions in the ruling NRM camp, as the party already had a flag bearer, Phillip Oucor, who lost to Okabe in the 2021 general elections.
Okabe’s family and the NRM party failed to agree on a harmonized position, and Omoding decided to stand as an independent.
Omonding has been living and working in Australia for the last 20 years. However, in one of the interviews before the elections, he said,
“People say I have been outside for 20 years, but I have always been coming back on Christmas and Easter with my family.”
His father’s standing within the NRM structures and the influence his late father had on the locals are credited with helping him win the election.