Candidate: Contestants’ names not on common roll

 By JAMES GUMUNO

SOME candidates contesting ward six in the Hagen urban local level government election do not have their names on the common roll.

Some candidates who do not live in the city are contesting the Hagen urban wards and the mayor’s seat.

Jacob Walega, a ward six candidate, said yesterday that other genuine candidates really did not understand why the returning officers and their assistants accepted nomination fees from them without checking if their names were on the 2012 common roll.

“The Organic Law on National and Local Level Government council elections clearly state that anyone over the age of 18 who lives in one particular ward for more than six months is eligible to contest for the elections,” he said.

“Here, however, the electoral officials blindly register candidates from outside without checking their names on the common roll.”

Walega, who claimed to speak on behalf of other candidates living in the city, blamed election officials for creating the problem.

“I checked the 2012 common roll last week. I checked all the names of candidates contesting for ward six and discovered that many of them didn’t have their names on the common roll,” he said.

He said they would be using the 2012 common roll for the council election and it was not too late for the electoral officials to cross-check names and disqualify those not on it.

Walega said the officers who were supposed to check the names of candidates on the common roll before accepting their nomination fees failed to do their job.

He said if one of these candidates won, the other candidates would go to the court and seek a by-election and that would cost a lot of money, time and resources.