Chaos, delays and irregularities have marred the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party primaries in most parts of the country that were scheduled for Thursday.
This forced the party to suspend the party primaries in some areas until the issues that arose about the same are resolved.
A section of the aspirants who were eyeing various seats complained that some of their competitors were given the party’s direct tickets without proper consultations or due process.
In some parts of the country, aspirants have reported cases of malpractices such as vote-rigging and tampering with voting material.
One such area is Bomet where aspirants demanded the party’s National Executive Board postpone the party primaries until the matter is resolved.
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Led by the UDA senatorial aspirant Wilson Sossion, the aspirants claimed there were acts of rigging at one of the polling stations after the nomination exercise took off at night.
Sossion also alleged that police impounded election materials, including ballot boxes and ballot papers that had already been marked in favour of a particular candidate.
“The police were able to impound ballot papers and boxes that were being transported to unknown and insecure destinations. We have accessed ballot papers that are marked,” Sossion said.
In Embu County, the nomination process was massively delayed because a lorry transporting voting materials was attacked and ballot boxes and papers were set ablaze.
The papers were burned following the emergence of rigging allegations just hours ahead of the primaries.
The incident prompted the party’s disciplinary committee to summon John Muchiri and Norman Nyaga who were accused of being responsible for inciting members of the public.
Several aspirants threatened to withdraw their membership from UDA and vie as independent candidates if the party does not hold credible primaries.
In Kuresoi South, the nomination process was put on hold over missing ballot papers. Officials realised 8 ballot boxes were missing.
The missing ballot boxes raised concerns among aspirants and voters who demanded to know their whereabouts, which caused a standoff at Keringet High School tallying centre and police had to be involved to control the irate crowd.
The voting process was also disrupted in one polling station namely Legebet Primary School after irate voters stormed into the polling room to eject an agent they accused of misleading an elderly voter.
Some voters in Murang’a County were disappointed when they were turned away because their names were missing from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) register.
Most of the people who were affected, including the Murang’a aspirant for the Woman Representative’s seat Rebecca Waruguru are those who had registered as voters in the 2017 general election.
Some counties such as Nyeri, Kiambu and Nakuru Counties were marred by low voter turnout.
UDA has postponed the party nominations in several regions across the country to different dates.
Some of those stations faced logistical issues or violence, forcing the party to set later dates for the nominations.
Mt. Elgon, Likuyani, Malava and Lugari will hold their primaries on Apr 16, 2022 while Turkana East and Central, Bumula, Nandi Hills and Nakuru Town West have been pushed to April 19, 2022.
The party also gave direct nominations in some counties therefore there will be no nominations in such regions.
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