15 arrested over Oyam elections chaos

One such group, according to Kyoga region police spokesperson Jimmy Patrick Okema, was allegedly escorting ballot boxes to polling places on motorcycles.

He claims that 14 motorcycles were also seized but will be returned following the electoral process.

The others were detained for allegedly bribing voters and intimidating them throughout the voting process.

Dr. Eunice Apio of the opposition Uganda Peoples' Congress won the highly contested by-election.

She received 15,718 votes, or 49 percent of the total votes cast, defeating her nearest rival, Samuel Engola Jr. of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), who received 15,176 votes, or 47 percent.

The total votes cast from 167 polling stations were 32,751, or 36.10 percent of the total registered voters.

There were 93,733 registered voters in eight sub-counties and town councils that make up Oyam County North Constituency. Spoiled votes were 37, while invalid votes were 755, or 2.31 percent.

Newton Freddy Okello of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and Daniel Okello of the National Unity Platform (NUP) were the other contenders.

Apio will be replacing Col. Charles Engola, a former labour state minister, who was assassinated by his security on May 2 at his residence in Kampala, leaving the Oyam North seat vacant.

Some residents have however alleged that the elections were marred with irregularities and have called on the Electoral Commission to address these concerns as soon as possible.  

Eunice Otuko Apio received her PhD in African studies and anthropology from the Department of History and Cultures at the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2016. In September 2017, she joined the Law School, University of Birmingham, as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender and Transitional Justice and worked on the subject of resilience in survivors of war-related sexual violence in a comparative study of Uganda, Colombia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.