Youths barricade Nakuru-Baringo road as they demonstrate over the suspension of Rongai parliamentary seat election following missing MP’s voting materials. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has temporarily suspended MP elections in Rongai Constituency after a mix-up in the MPs ballot papers.
Nakuru County IEBC Manager Joseph Mele confirmed the discrepancy in the Rongai parliamentary elections and said voting had been temporarily suspended but did not give much details.
“The IEBC headquarters in Nairobi will give further communications. That’s all that I can say for now” he said.
Many of the supporters of the candidates including incumbent Raymond Moi of Kanu, Paul Chebor (UDA)and Luka Kigen (CCM) said they were shocked by the mix-up.
“This is incredibly wrong for IEBC to overlook such a glaring mistake,” an angry voter who identified herself as Joshua Mathai.
Some of the voters were shocked as they queued only to be told by the presiding officers manning the polling stations that they will not elect their preferred MP.
A presiding officer at Mercy Njeri primary school said that they noticed the discrepancy at 3am when they went to collect the ballot papers.
“We’re told the papers had been mixed-up with others. Those are unconfirmed reports even officials of IEBC have not told us exactly what is the problem,” said the official.
He added: ” Other reports indicate the ballot papers had been taken to Kuresoi South or Kuresoi North. But those are reports I cannot independently verify as at now. I’m waiting for IEBC to give us further directions, “said the IEBC official.
Mr Samwel Sang a voter at Mercy Njeri urged IEBC to speed up the process of ensuring the missing ballot papers are available by Friday.
“We want to urge the IEBC not to keep over 84,000 voters pending for long,” said another voter Isaac Mbote.
