By Bondry Kilenga
Former Jie County Member of Parliament Moses Adome Bildad has listed 11 grounds for nullification of the incumbent Member of Parliament of Kotido Municipality, Ismail Lomwar’s election as the NRM party flag bearer.
Lomwar was on July 18, 2025, declared the winner of the NRM primary elections for parliamentary flag bearers held on July 17, 2025, by the Kotido District NRM Election Officer, John Paul Namuya.
According to the official election results, Lomwar polled 8,518 votes against Adome’s 5,939 votes.
However, Adome rejected the election outcome and petitioned the party’s Electoral Commission seeking nullification of Lomwar’s victory, citing election fraud and other irregularities.
In his petition, Adome raises 11 grounds, which include; missing names of eligible voters, alteration of results, tampering of the voters’ register, and voter bribery by Lomwar and his supporters.
He also claimed that the party declaration forms were leaked ahead of the election day by the NRM district registrar, John Paul Namuya.
Adome said that many declarations forms had identical serial numbers, particularly in the north and west divisions.
Additionally, Adome pointed out that he encountered challenges at every step of the election process, including intimidation from the supporters of his opponent.
Other grounds include alleged impediment of his agents, failure by the NRM party to train the polling assistants, delayed delivery of voting materials causing delays in the voting process, and the involvement of the Kotido Resident District Commissioner, Charles Ichogor, and top security officials in the electoral process, contrary to the NRM constitution.
However, these allegations could not be independently verified by Etoil A Karamoja.
Based on these eleven grounds, Adome is confident that the NRM party Elections Dispute Tribunal will declare Lomwar’s election null and void.
With the hearing of his petition scheduled for August 3, 2025, Adome is urging his supporters to stay calm while they wait for the Election Disputes Tribunal’s verdict.
Efforts to get a comment from the RDC, Charles Ichogor about his alleged involvement in the electoral process were futile as known telephone number was not available by the time of filling this story.
Paul Namuya, the Kotido District Registrar denied leaking declaration forms prior to the election day.
He stated that all declaration forms were stamped using the official NRM seal, as agreed by the election stakeholders.
In his response, the Kotido District Police Commander Hussein Ssekalema, refuted the alleged police involvement in the electoral process, describing it has mere politicking.
He stated that police and other security personnel were only deployed to various polling stations to provide security during voting process.
Meanwhile information obtained by Etoil A Karamoja indicates that this is not the first time Adome has rejected the outcome of the NRM internal party elections.
On May 22 2025, Adome petitioned the NRM Electoral Commission after losing the party chairmanship for Kotido municipality to Peter Lonya alias Jupitex in the party structure elections, citing irregularities.
Lonya, the current LCIII chairperson of Kotido West Division, was declared the winner after securing 79 votes against Adome’s 74 votes.
Adome in his petition claimed that candidates were not provided with NRM election guidelines and that the official venue was changed on Election Day, disenfranchising candidates and voters.
He also cited intimidation of voters by his rival’s camp, voter intimidation, and denial of access to the electoral area for his supporters as grounds for nullification of Lonya’s victory.
However, his petition was demised on June 2, 2025, without costs by the party’s Election Commission due to lack of sufficient evidence to support his claims contained in his petition.
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