Tension rose at a polling station in Machakos county following a mix-up of Forms 37A on Tuesday
The incident prompted Wiper Machakos governor candidate Wavinya Ndeti to storm Imani polling station in Athi River, Mavoko, at around 1am.
Machakos county police commander Issa Mohammud said the former Transport CAS later made a report at Athi River police station, with rigging claims.
“There was an incident involving a presiding officer at a polling station in Imani polling centre on Tuesday night. Agents of governor candidates realized a mix-up in Form 37A after the presiding officer issued them the form to sign,” Mohammud said.
Mohammud spoke to the Star on Wednesday.
Ndeti’s result had been recorded as her CCU competitor Nzioka Waita’s, while his was recorded as hers.
“The agents realised that Ndeti’s results had been wrongly entered in Form 37A by the presiding officer at Amani polling station. The error was, however, rectified and a new form filled with Ndeti’s correct results. The correct results were indicated on the amended form,”Mohammud said.
The police boss said Ndeti accused the presiding officer of engaging in electoral malpractices.
“She requested to see the Form 37A, and also made a report at Athi River police station,” Mohammud said.
“The presiding officer mistakenly filled the Form 37A, but it was detected and rectified,” he said.
Mohammud said the matter was amicably solved and poll agents of both Waita and Ndeti agreed to the amendments. They appended their signatures to the new Form 37A.
Machakos IEBC returning officer Nelly Illongo was yet to receive the results at the county’s tallying centre by press time since counting and tallying exercises were still ongoing in polling stations and the eight constituency tallying centres in the county.
Mohammud said there was no cause for alarm since the counting and tallying exercises were going on well with neither hitches nor interruptions.
“There is no fear, we are on the ground. Our over 3, 000 police officers deployed to the polling stations are still on duty,” he said.
