Neto wins Ndhiwa ODM nomination

Written By maboko on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 | 11:49 AM

Agostinho Neto has been declared winner of the Ndhiwa constituency ODM nominations with 4,277 votes, beating 22 other candidates.

Interestingly, the presiding officer Elias Kitom did not announce the votes for the other candidates. 

The seat fell vacant following the death of Internal Security assistant minister Orwa Ojode, who died in a helicopter crash on June 10 alongside minister George Saitoti.  

The other candidates protested the results immediately saying the exercise was not conducted fairly and they will be seeking a court order.

The candidates including Martin Owino, Beatrice Ogola and Michael Agwanda had demanded that the nominations results be withheld amid confusion over the exercise. 

They alleged that there were several anomalies and declaring a winner without looking into such would be unjust. 

Mr Owino said some of the issues they were raising range from deliberate name omissions in the final result sheets to inflated results in favour of particular candidates.

In an email sent on Monday, National Election Board (NEB) secretary, Joseph Misoi, said there was a problem in the morning at Ratanga polling station after rowdy youths accosted officers and destroyed electoral materials. 

He, however, said the situation had been brought under control and fresh ballot papers sent to the polling station and voting started immediately. 

“NEB wishes to report that the nomination exercise for candidates in Ndhiwa and other vacant civic seats across the country is going on well save for a few isolated cases,” Dr Misoi said. 

He said stern action will be taken against those who violate the electoral code of conduct of the party. 

“Investigations have been launched to establish the persons involved incidences and if any of the candidates is found guilty, then they will be disqualified automatically regardless of the outcome,” Dr Misoi said.

Source: Nation Media