The newly elected Member of Parliament for Oyam County North Eunice Otuko Apio has been sworn in Parliament on Thursday.
She has been duly declared MP following the swearing-in ceremony that took place during a plenary sitting chaired by Speaker Anita Among. Otuko who won as flag bearer for the Uganda People’s Congress(UPC was accompanied by her party President Jimmy Akena, also MP of Lira Municipality, among other UPC legislators.
Clad in a grey suit with red highlights and gold-coated buttons, Otuko took hold of the bible and took the oath of allegiance.
The Oath of Member of Parliament reads: “Iswear in the name of the Almighty God/solemnly affirm that I will give faithful service to this Parliament and support and uphold the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda as by law established. [So help me God.”
Otuko polled 15,718 votes, beating National Resistance Movement (NRM)’s Samuel Engola Okello who garnered 15,161 votes. The race was tight between UPC, NRM and other opposition political parties including Forum for Democratic Change(FDC) and National Unity Platform(NUP).
Otuko had sighted incidents of violence and vote stuffing in the elections.
“I expected a fairly leveled ground but as we progressed through the day reality set it because there was a lot of intimidation, blatant raids on polling stations in my strong hold, violence on voters and ballot stuffing quite often. But Unity is important and I am going to reach out to everyone regardless of their party so that we come together to develop our community,” she said
Otuko replaced Col (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola, who was killed in May by his bodyguard identified as Wilson Sabiiti.