A section of FORD Kenya supporters in Lugari Sub County are demanding nullification and an immediate repeat of the party nomination exercise after marked ballot papers for one of the parliamentary aspirants were found dumped in Lugari forest.
The ballot papers which had been wrapped in a nylon paper bag were found by a man who was grazing livestock in the forest. “I was looking after my cows when I stumbled upon this paper bag. At first, I thought a pupil may have forgotten or hidden his or her books here. I decided to unwrap it, only to find they were Ford Kenya ballot papers and all of them had been marked against Mr Patrick Mwange Sande’s name,” said the herdsman. He informed security officials and other residents who visited the scene.
Sande’s agents and supporters who witnessed expressed their dissatisfaction with the manner in which the nomination exercise was conducted citing glaring irregularities.
They claimed that the paper may have been secretly sneaked from the ballot boxes during the Friday’s nomination exercise to give their opponent victory.
They accused some party officials of interfering with the party primaries exercise by having a preferred list of people they wanted to be nominated, a move they said may prove counter-productive to the party during the 8th August polls.
Speaking to West Media on phone from Nairobi where he had travelled to launch a complaint after his only opponent Joseph Lunani was announced the winner, Sande vowed never to accept the results arguing the whole exercise was marred with malpractices.
“I visited almost all polling centres during the exercise and I wasn’t pleased with the entire process there were malpractices everywhere and even my opponent’s vehicle was used to transport ballot boxes, that’s why I travelled to Nairobi to officially launch a complaint after
my opponent was announced the winner. I’m shocked to hear that hundreds of
ballot papers, which show people had voted for me, have been found dumped in the forest,” said Sande.
The aspirant appealed for the party’s head office and its leader Moses Wetang’ula to intervene and nullify the results and call for an immediate repeat of the exercise.
His supporters have threatened to quit the party and support an opposition candidate in case the party won’t address their demands.
Joseph Karungani Lunani had been declared the winner in the Friday 21st primaries after garnering 8,200 votes against Sande’s 4,300.