The outgoing Bunda legislator and former Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Mr Stephen Wassira, has rejected the election results that were announced on Monday by the constituency returning officer in favour of Ms Esther Bulaya of Chadema, citing various irregularities.
Bunda urban returning officer Lucy Msofe announced last Monday that Bulaya won the election by 28,510 votes beating Wassira who managed 19,126 votes in a hotly contested election which was conducted peacefully.
Wassira told journalists in Bunda that he was consulting with his legal team for further action and added that the results that were announced in various polling stations did not reflect the actual number of the total voters registered.
He said besides the shortcoming, some of his voters were blocked from voting by rowdy groups from the opposition parties and added that he reported the matter to the police in advance concerning the lawlessness, although the police were not available for comment.
“The actual number of total votes in some polling stations was different from the records of all registered eligible voters and this includes regular attacks to my supporters by opposition,” he said.
The minister said he received information from his agents at polling stations that some youth purported to be opposition supporters had started to re-group at polling stations during late hours on the polling day and in some cases his voters were intimidated and prevented from exercising their constitutional right.
Mr Wassira pointed out that his reservations were correctly raised with the constituency returning officer in advance stages and added that it seems they were not correctly considered for resolutions.
“In so doing, I declare that the just announced results from Bunda urban constituency is null and void, they did not reflect the actual wishes of the electorate, therefore, I will challenge them in a court room as soon as my legal team furnishes me with their findings,” he said.
ACT-Wazalendo’s contestant Kulwa Maganja who emerged third by 293 votes told the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ separately that he had conceded defeat and resolved to work closely with Ms Bulaya for the sake of the electorate and Bunda District as a whole and urged other contestants to admit defeat.
“Elections come and go in every five years, there is life after polls, everybody cannot win in one position, so I urge my fellow 'comrades' to stop wasting time and resources fighting for lesser occurrences,” he said.
Culled from Daily News
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