Placido Hilukilwa
THE Congress of Democrats (CoD) is not happy with an incident at the Oluno Community Hall polling station where representatives of political parties allegedly demanded that the presiding officer provide them with a preliminary total number of voters who already cast their ballots.
The presiding officer obliged and determined that 144 had cast their ballots at that time, but in so doing she caused the Electronic Voting Machine to develop a mechanical problem and had to be temporarily replaced with a new one.
Returning officer Rauna Nkandi confirmed the incident.
She said that a button got stuck while the presiding officer was trying to determine the number of voters who voted.
She added that that was not really necessary because the number of voters can be determined using the register.
She further said that the machine was repaired and is in use again, but Boas Mwapopi of the CoD is demanding that all the 144 ballots be declared “spoilt ballots” because the machine was tampered with.
“This is unheard of. You don’t open the ballot box while the voting is still ongoing,” he said.
