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Former government spokesperson and Uganda Media Centre Executive Director Ofwono Opondo has announced that his opponent, Dominic Gidudu Mafabi, will not run as an independent.
Opondo defeated Mafabi, the incumbent Member of Parliament for Older Persons Eastern Region, in the recently concluded National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries.
“This evening, at the initiative of my senior colleague and elder, Hon. Dominic Gidudu Mafabi told me on phone that as a senior NRM cadre he won’t run as an independent for MP Older Persons Eastern Region. I am grateful for his decision,” Opondo posted on X on Friday, September 26.
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President Yoweri Museveni, in May, cleared Opondo to contest as MP representing the elderly in Eastern Uganda.
Opondo, who stepped down as Executive Director of the Uganda Media Centre, met the president at State House Nakasero.
He also received backing from senior NRM leaders, including Speaker Anitah Among, NRM Vice Chairman Al Hajji Moses Kigongo, and former Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda.
Al-Hajji Moses Kigongo
“Last evening, at Nakasero I met Kaguta Museveni and he accepted my race for Older Persons Eastern Region 12th Parliament. I have also secured support from Hajji Moses Kigongo, Ruhakana Rugunda, Anitah Among, Oboth Oboth, Mukula and others,” Opondo wrote on X in May.
After 26 years as a government communicator, Opondo said he now wants to move into Parliament to push for change.
Opondo joined the Uganda Media Centre on July 1, 2013. Before that, he was Director of Information and Public Relations at the NRM Secretariat from 2002, replacing Winnie Byanyima.
He served as NRM spokesperson from 2003 and played a key role in Museveni’s election task forces between 2001 and 2016.