Godfrey Aine Kaguta Sodo, one of the contestants in the NRM primaries for the Mawogola North parliamentary seat has accused Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Sam Kutesa of causing suspension of the election in this constituency.
Mr Sodo, a brother to President Yoweri Museveni claims the NRM Electoral Commission was compelled by Minister Kutesa to postpone the election.
The NRM Electoral Commission Chairman Dr Tanga Odoi called off all the scheduled elections for both the constituency and Woman MP in Mawogola North and Mawogola West for fear of possible violence.
Odoi said even though the violence was in the constituency MP races, he couldn’t risk allowing the Woman MP elections to carry on because the violence would still have spilled over.
However, according to Sodo the commission had no reason and did not give him any proper explanation for the postponement.
He told NTV this morning that he was surprised by the decision.
“This morning I was transporting my agents to the villages to guard my votes and on the way I got a phone from the district electoral commission informing me that Tanga Odoi had decided to cancel the election,” he said.
“When I made further phone calls I was told that Hon Sam Kutesa had said he was not going to take part in the election.”
Hon Kutesa’s daughter Shartsi Kutesa is taking on Mr Sodo for the Mawogola North parliamentary seat.
In the interview, Mr Sodo claimed that Mrs Shartsi had also expressed interest in the election being suspended.
“Yesterday his (Minister Kutesa’s) daughter wrote to the Electoral Commission saying she was not ready to take part in this election. She said the election should either be suspended or she would not be part of it.”
ChimpReports was unable to verify these claims as the NRM Electoral Commission had not responded to our calls.
Meanwhile, ahead of the cancelation, Mr Sodo accused Mrs Hartsi’s camp of attacking and trying to burn one of his agents to death.
One Haruna Nuwamanya who is hospitalized with burn injuries, says last night he had just returned home from a meeting with fellow agents when he found that his house had been doused with fuel.
“The entire house smelle like petrol and even my bed looked wet. I realized that something was off and as I was about to run out of the house, the fire started. Luckily I had not yet locked the door and I was able to get out and call for help,” he said.
Haruna claims days before, he had been waylaid by a group of three men who questioned him on why he was supporting and campaigning for Sodo who is not his brother.
Commenting on the incident, Sodo vowed to work with authorities to hunt down the people behind the attack.
