•Ochanda garnered 10,771 votes and his closest challenger John Andiwo Mwai got 4,967 votes.
•Odhiambo got 7,405 to become the Orange party’s nominee for the Gem parliamentary seat.
Image: JOSIAH ODANGA
All the four incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) from Siaya who had been subjected to nominations by the ODM emerged victorious in the primaries on Wednesday.
In a late-night announcement, the county returning officer Maina Victor declared legislators Elisha Odhiambo (Gem), Samuel Atandi (Alego Usonga), Gideon Ochanda (Bondo) and Christine Ombaka (Women Representative) the winners.
Ochanda garnered 10,771 votes and his closest challenger John Andiwo Mwai got 4,967 votes.
Odhiambo got 7,405 to become the Orange party’s nominee for the Gem parliamentary seat.
His only competitor George Jalang’o Midiwo garnered 6,384 votes.
Alego Usonga was contested by three candidates, namely Atandi, Nicholus Kut and Jaqueline Oduol.
Atandi, having received a whopping 17,789 votes, trounced his competitors and will fly the ODM flag in the general elections.
Kut got 3,350 votes whereas Oduol came a distant third with 542 votes.
Ombaka won the Women Representative seat with 27,521 votes.
Her closest challenger was Pamela Akello who got 20,513 votes.
Others who had also angled for the Women MP seat were Dorothy Ainga who had 11,996, Mary Apiyo Olute with 8,361 votes, Caroline Adhiambo (5,565 votes), Mildred Atieno (4,416) and Maurine Anyango with 2,827 votes.
In her acceptance speech, Ombaka thanked the Siaya people for voting for her again and promised to serve better.
Ochanda, who had earlier criticized the party over the lack of preparedness and referred to the voting process as chaotic, said that he was humbled by the results.
He said that their win was supposed to be a lesson to the Orange party.
“A direct participation by the people is the simplest thing that we really need to be doing. Elections are personal, and people want to participate directly by themselves,” he said.
He said that the party can do much better if it is well prepared for the nominations since this particular one only took a few days to prepare.
Atandi thanked the ODM and its National Elections Board for doing a good job.
“We did not expect that the elections would turn out to be this way, but the elections were conducted in a free, fair and competent manner,” he said.
He thanked his constituents for enabling him to break the jinx of the area MPs not being elected for a second term.
Odhiambo, on his part, also thanked the people of Gem and the ODM party for giving him another opportunity to serve.
The nominees were all issued interim certificates.
The nominees stressed that direct ticketing is hurting the party and it is time it was stopped.