Low voter turnout as Wajir West residents choose their MP

Voters at the Khulash 2 Polling Station in Wajir West Line up to cast their vote during the by-election. [Phillip Orwa/Standard]

Voting in the Wajir West parliamentary by-election was yesterday characterised by low voter turnout.

However, voting went on smoothly despite few hiccups in some polling centres, including malfunctioning of some electronic voter identification devices.

Most polling stations were open at 6am, with police deployed to ensure law and order.

Voters were frisked before queuing to cast their votes. Most polling stations in urban centres reported higher voter turnout.

The main protagonists in the mini-poll are Jubilee’s Ahmed Kolosh, the former area MP, and Kanu’s Ibrahim Mohammed.

The two cast votes early morning before moving round the constituency to monitor voting.

Mr Kolosh, who expressed confidence of recapturing the seat, voted at Wajir Girls Secondary School.

“The exercise is going on well. The only problem is the voter identification gadgets which are slow. It is taking longer to identify one voter, but so far so good,” said Kolosh.

Mohammed was also confident he would clinch the seat. “The voter identification kits are not working in some stations, including Hon Khalif Secondary School, but we are happy election officials are very cooperative. They are answering our calls and promising to address the issues,” said Mr Mohammed.

The Wajir West seat fell vacant after Supreme Court nullified Kolosh’s victory in the 2017 General Election due to irregularities.

There were 75 polling stations and 27,444 registered voters in the vast constituency.

Vote tallying is expected to take longer since some polling areas are more than 200km from Griftu Pastoralist Training Centre, the main tallying centre.

The contest was reduced to a two-horse race, between Kolosh and Mohammed, after other candidates withdrew.

Earlier this month, ODM’s candidate Mohamed Yusuf withdrew in favour of Jubilee’s Kolosh.