Chaos as Jubilee primaries stall in Taita Taveta

Voters wait to cast their ballots at Timbila Primary School polling station on Friday. [Renson Mnyamwezi, Standard]

Jubilee leaders, led by Taveta MP Naomi Shaban, Friday demanded suspension of the party's primaries in Taita Taveta County, citing late arrival of election materials and claims of rigging.

By 4.30pm Friday, voting had not begun in most of the county's polling stations due to late arrival of ballot materials, even though voters started arriving as early as 5am. In Wundanyi constituency, only ballot papers for parliamentary aspirants were printed and delivered, while in Taveta, no declaration forms were delivered at the constituency's 21 polling stations even after the arrival of other materials, amid a shortage of ballot papers.

As desperation grew, election officials and aspirants in Voi and Wundanyi resolved to conduct the polls using photocopies of ballot papers to cover the deficit.

An aspirant for Kaloleni ward, Maria Chao, told Saturday Standard that aspirants met election board officials and agreed to make copies of ballots.

By 2pm, Shaban had not cast her ballot at Mahoo Primary School, while her main challenger Mike Banton had not done so at Timbila Primary School.

She suggested that the nomination be put off for four days to allow an all-inclusive exercise.

"In some of the ballot papers, names of aspirants are missing. For a free and fair process, all candidates must participate," said Dr Shaban.

Taveta Constituency, which has a total of 34,242 registered voters, only received 4,000 ballot papers, while Wundanyi got 2,500 ballot papers against a total of 38, 058 voters.

In some polling stations, election officials stayed away for fear of being attacked by angry voters. In others, election officials were idling around while others were sleeping due to fatigue.

County Deputy Elections Board Chairperson Beatrice Mbela said they were doing everything possible to get more election materials. 

"No voting will take place without enough materials," she said.