ODM nominations dived into deeper waters on Tuesday after a chaotic start last week, with the party canceling voting in the Coast regions.
"Due to unanticipated circumstances, the National Elections Board ... has postponed the scheduled primaries in ... Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Tana River and Lamu from
Wednesday
19,
April 2017
to
Saturday
22," elections board chair
Judith Pareno
said in a statement.
In Kitengela Ward, Kajiado East nominations were called off after the ballot papers were stolen.
"The vehicle transporting election material to St Monica Polling Station got stuck in the mud due to the rains and in the process some ballot papers were taken away," director of communications Philip Etale said.
In a statement on Tuesday, Etale said the papers were stolen by some of the people helping the driver get the vehicle out of the mud.
"The National Elections Board has decided that voting in that particular polling station be called off," he said.
Etale said a new date will be announced but noted that voting in the rest of the polling stations in the ward is going on.
Missing names
In Nakuru, the
election for the MP’s position was called off after the name of an aspirant went missing.
"I talked to Pareno and she assured me that my name will be on the list; how come today, after going through the process, the name is not there," Eric Ogada said on Tuesday.
He accused current Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama of undermining the primaries. He said there are moles in ODM colluding with the MP, who since decamped to Jubilee.
Ogada also claimed he has evidence that Arama had financed some aspirants to run on ODM tickets to ensure the party has a weak candidate to face him (Arama) in the August 8 polls.
But Arama denied the allegations saying that a section of aspirants feared the nomination process.
"Let them continue talking instead of sorting out their issues," the MP said amid laughter.
ODM members had arrived the Kaptembwa branch offices to cast their vote as early as 6am. But branch chair Peter ole Osono announced a postponement of the exercise after the anomaly was noted.
"The board has learnt that the name of one of the aspirant for the MP position in Nakuru Town West has his name missing on the ballot paper," Etale said.
Etale said it was
a technical hitch that the board
regretted
adding
a new date will be announced later in the day.
Disputed register
Confusion marred ODM Governor and West Mugirango parliamentary nominations in Nyamira County after a decision to use both the party register and IEBC register in the nominations.
The exercise was halted for several hours due to the misunderstanding in various polling stations across the county while in most polling stations, materials had not arrived by 12.30pm.
In Taita Taveta, there were media reports that some people attempted to raid the Mwatate CDF Hall where election material had been stored.
"We have since confirmed that indeed this happened, but security personnel moved in with speed and repelled them," Etale said.
Etale said assured members and aspirants that there was no destruction.
"The election material was not tampered with and it was distributed to polling stations where the exercise is going on smoothly," he added.
Earlier, ODM said only "ODM registers" are being used in the nominations taking place
across the country following protests on alleged use of IEBC lists.
Some voters complained of missing registers while some aspirants have raised questions on the absence of their names on ballot papers.
At Nyamira polling centre, voting was
temporarily
suspended after claims that IEBC registers, not ODM's, were being used.