The fight for the Gulu City Woman Member of Parliament is taking serious shape.
This came as NRM declared that they were going all in with dethrone FDC’s Betty Aol Ocan.
We should also note that Aol reigns Sspreme in Gulu, especially with the female voters.
The former leader of the opposition has said that she will be running for the Gulu MP seat in 2026.
It also be noted that NRM has been big across Acholi sub-regions for the last ten years with some of the top leaders in the opposition parties having been dethroned.
However, one person who still stands strong is the former leader of the opposition.
Her long stay in Parliament is attributed to her strong attachment to the voters especially women at the grassroots level.
She has been hailed for her massive contribution to the health sector by buying four ambulances but is also a strong advocate of empowerment on the floor of Parliament.
Aol who once served as an LC5 councillor for about ten years remains a thorn for the NRM in the Acholi sub-region as she still reigns supreme in Gulu.
“Gulu City needs servant leaders, not people who think they will sit there, sometimes in the bar and feel so big,” she says.
However, NRM Registrar George Ovola says they are preparing a robust affirmative action that will uproot Aol from her seat in 2026.
“We are going to do what it takes to make sure NRM takes over the position,” Ovola said.
Aol who has been in Parliament since 2006 believes that the city still needs her experience in order to put in place proper structures that will propel Gulu’s development.
And with clenched fists, the former leader of the opposition sees the aspirations of the NRM as an appeasement policy to their party chairperson President Museveni and a scramble for ministerial positions.
With the discovery of oil and graphite in some parts of the Acholi subregion, Aol believes that it is her motherly figure that will help the city to benefit from the newfound mineral wealth.
Arthur Owor, a political analyst and researcher believes that the NRM will find it difficult to dethrone Aol, mainly because of her ground among the voters in Gulu City, especially the women.
“What she ably did was to brand herself as ‘Min Gulu’. Which means the mother of Gulu”,” Owor says.
