UDA’s Hassan Omar protests IEBC’s decision to suspend Mombasa governor race

Mombasa gubernatorial candidate Hassan Omar has protested a decision by the electoral body to suspend the poll slated for August 9, 2022.

IEBC on Monday suspended four elections including the Mombasa and Kakamega gubernatorial contests citing an error on the ballot papers.

Speaking to members of the press on Monday, Omar, seeking the governor seat on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket, alleged malice in the move by IEBC, further terming the said error as extreme negligence on the part of the commission.

He also alleged an attempt by the Azimio One Kenya coalition opponents to interfere with the polls after 'sensing defeat' in Mombasa and Kakamega counties.

The position of the party is that the coincidence of Mombasa and Kakamega counties is too curious to imagine that there was no foul play in this whole occurrence. We all realize that these two areas had prided themselves on being the strongholds of the Azimio candidates. until very recently we had enough data scientifically to appreciate that to us in Mombasa it was going to be a landslide victory," he said.

"We read malice. We read mischief. We read a design to preserve some counties of a specific nature including Mombasa."

Earlier, Chebukati said the ballot papers for the four races had wrong images of candidates printed on them.

The IEBC boss said the elections will be conducted at a later date to be announced by the commission.

"Ballot papers for the following elective positions were noted to have errors. Ballot papers for Kakamega county governor positions, Mombasa County have wrong gubernatorial candidate pictures and the details printed on them. Positions for members of the National Assembly in Pokot South and three in Kachiriba also have wrong candidate pictures and the details printed on them," Chebukati said.

Other elections affected are for members of the National Assembly in Pokot South and Kacheliba constituencies.