The National Electoral Commission has said people it hired to man polling stations vandalised election materials, causing a shortage of ballot papers and forcing a postponement of voting in two wards in Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam Region.
NEC Director of Elections Kailima Ramadhani said yesterday evening that commotion due to a pay dispute occurred earlier in the day when the workers were receiving the materials, when some got angry and destroyed some ballot boxes.
“They were demanding more money; they wanted us to pay them 100,000/- per day, which we didn’t have,” he said.
Ramadhani announced that NEC decided to postpone polling in Saranga and Msangani wards.
He said that, while in previous elections it was teachers who were hired as election supervisors and clerks, this year it is non-civil servants who were engaged.
As a result of the shortcomings, thousands of voters who turned up in Kibamba constituency were yesterday denied their right to vote after the problem was reflected at their polling stations. This included cases of having too few ballots and suspicious names.
At least 6,000 would-be voters at EDP Royal Primary and Secondary School polling stations located at Stop-Over in Kimara couldn't cast their votes up to as late as 7 p.m.
The stations had inadequate ballot papers and other materials such as ink, compelling returning officers and electoral agents to seek assistance from NEC for replenishment of more voting materials.
Stop-Over is a stronghold of the opposition and is among the highly contested areas in the nine wards forming Kibamba constituency.
Contestants for parliamentary seats are Fenella Mukangara (CCM), Dickson Ng’illy (ACT-Wazalendo) and John Mnyika (Chadema).
Despite the fact that station was opened at 7am, no single voter managed to cast a vote yesterday.
The CCM election agents at the EDP polling station which had voters in ten other stations, who had not voted left the polling station at 6pm, blaming NEC for mishandling the election in the area.
Opposition agents, from both Chadema and ACT-Wazalendo opted to wait until NEC officially closed the station as the sun was setting.
Kinondoni Municipal Elections Director Mussa Natty who arrived at the polling station accompanied by outgoing Ubungo MP Mnyika directed the voting process to continue promising to bring-in a generator for power back up in the area.
Mnyika immediately urged voters to remain in the queues and cast their votes as directed.
Mnyika claimed that the ruling party had a plan to rig the elections at the centre, urging voters not to leave the polling station.
But his suggestion was not fully supported by all the voters who simply questioned the rationale of voting for presidency and MP and postponing the councillorship voting.
“How can they verify our identities next time considering that we have already signed to have voted,” questioned Hamad Hassan, a resident of Kimara Stop-Over.
According to him, the voters were ready to wait for the ballots; however they were concerned that already police officers were patrolling the area creating fear on the voters.
While Mukangara quickly blamed her fellow candidate for not being cooperative, Ng’illy blamed the decision by NEC to allow voters to cast their votes at night.
“I am concerned over the security of the process be postponed to tomorrow,” he said.
Observations by the Guardian revealed that the returning offers were also not safe.
Godfrey Sam, a party agent, said: “The voters are now stranded, not knowing what to do, because the process cannot start without having enough ballots.”
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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