[Busia gubernatorial aspirant, Dr Paul Otuoma. Photo/Capital Fm]
Busia gubernatorial aspirant, Dr Paul Otuoma, has issued his ODM party, with a 24-hour ultimatum, to declare him winner of the party primaries.
Primaries were held in the county, April 13, but were nullified by ODM National Elections Board (NEB), after they were marred by irregularities.
Otuoma sought to beat his rival, incumbent Sospeter Ojaamong', who seeks to defend his seat through the Raila Odinga-led party ticket, as well.
During announcing of the nomination results, Ojaamong' was declared the winner with 92,358 votes against his challenger, Otuoma's 63,752 votes
This prompted the Judith Pareno-led NEB to nullify the gubernatorial results, and ordered for a repeat, Tuesday April 25.
However, things seem to be going against ODM's will, after Otuoma said he would not be part of the primaries' repeat.
"We are asking the ODM National Elections Board (NEB) to declare Dr Paul Nyongesa Otuoma as the winner of the Busia gubernatorial nominations. We are giving the party 24-hours to do so, because he won evidently,'' said Peter Odima, who is the chairman, and secretary to the Funyula MP.
Speaking in the county, Saturday, Odima said it was bad for the party leader to agree the nomination results be cancelled, instead of declaring Otuoma, the winner. According to him, Ojaamong' rigged the nominations, to indicate he won by cooking number of votes cast.
On his part, Otuoma maintained he would not be part of the repeted nominations, since he won fairly.
Ojaamong' has since declared he was ready for the repeat, saying he would still beat his competitor, with a landslide win.