Candidates, scrutineers confront Northern police

By LESLIE OMARO
POPONDETTA town came to a standstill on Tuesday when angry scrutineers and their candidates came close to facing off with armed policemen over a disputed ballot box.
Angry scrutineers had earlier walked out of the regional counting venue at Popondetta council chambers after discovering a parcel containing ballot papers in one box.
A meeting was immediately held with the provincial elections manager Peter Malaifeope, provincial police commander Victor Isouve and some of the disgruntled candidates.
The candidates demanded Malaifeope act swiftly to resolve the problem so that counting could resume.
They alleged that the elections manager had compromised himself which resulted in a lot of discrepancies in the regional counting.
Malaifeope told the candidates that their complaints and issues raised in their petitions were genuine and he would need to consult the electoral commissioner and a commission lawyer.
Commission officials were to arrive in the province today to deal with the matter.
Some of the frustated candidates were businessman Paul Garata Toki, former teaching commission chairman Allan Jogioba and former provincial adviser for the provincial local level government, Mathias Dogia.
“Where is the fairness, transparency and justice?” independent candidate Rex Embahe asked.
“Police used threats to suppress us. We (Oro people) are not soft but we are using our common sense to restrain ourselves.
“But how long will we do this as we are sitting on a time bomb?” Embahe said.
Social justice advocator and senior public servant Jean Parkop said: “As a female candidate, I’m frustrated by the counting process being sabotaged by certain people.”
The candidates and their scrutineers alleged there were a lot of discrepancies which Malaifeope overlooked and simple administrative matters such as balancing ballot papers were not seriously considered.
They said Malaifeope wanted these simple administrative matters to be sorted out in the court of disputed returns but it was too expensive and time consuming for many of them.
Instead, they wanted Malaifeope to address all the issues at the administrative level so counting could continue and a winner declared quickly.