ODM K's Sirat leads in Wajir South poll

Former Wajir South MP Abdirahman Hassan faces a battle to recapture his seat after he fell behind his closest challenger ODM-Kenya's Mahamud Sirat in early by election results Wednesday evening.

With 46 out of the 68 polling stations reporting, Mr Sirat had polled 6,578 votes against 4,889 for Kanu's Hassan.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission chairman Ahmed Isaack Hassan said he was satisfied with the polling process and lauded the candidates for showing political maturity.

"“The IIEC is happy with the way candidates carried themselves since no incidence of violence was reported," he said at IIEC's Anniversary Towers offices in Nairobi where he was monitoring the electronic tallying of the votes cast.

He also said that the poll had been marked by a high voter turnout as opposed to the referendum where only 34pc of the registered voters took part in the plebiscite.

"With a 73pc turnout, it shows that the people of Wajir South took the by election seriously.”

The constituency has 22,100 registered voters.

Earlier, vote counting had started after polls closed at 5 p.m in Wajir South constituency in a mini poll to elect a new MP.

The by-election was marked by high voter turn-out but it brought to fore the high illiteracy levels in the constituency.

According to the Interim Independent Electoral Commission officials, more than 80 percent of the voters had to be assisted to vote.

In one particular polling station, said Ms Immaculate Kissait the Director of Voter Registration and Electoral Operations, only four voters managed to vote on their own.

“Most of the voters turning up for the polling exercise requested to be assisted to vote. We attribute this to high illiteracy levels,” she told the Nation in Habaswein town.

“We are however happy that the process started in time with a high voter turn-out…by 11am for instance, 27 centres had registered with a 57 voter turn-out. We are sure that this will improve as the day goes by.”

The official said despite the voting process going on smoothly in the vast constituency for the better part of the day, there were allegations of impropriety.

There were reports of voter bribery, with one of the candidates being accused of dishing out cash to influence voters to elect him.

However, Ms Kissait, in response, said those were just rumours but added that they had launched investigations over the matter.

“We have sent our officials to those areas to ascertain whether this information is true. Action will be taken against these people should they be found guilty,” she said.

The seat fell vacant after former MP Hassan’s election was nullified by a petition filed by ODM-K’s Sirat.

Mr Hassan had won the seat on a Kanu ticket, an affiliate party of the PNU coalition.