Tana River Governor Dhadho Godhana has been re-elected with 26,892 votes beating his close competitor and first Governor Hussein Tuneya Dado with a small margin of 259 votes.
Hussein Dado (UDA) got 26,633 votes; Nuh Nassir (UPIA Party) had 24,101 and outgoing Bura Constituency MP Ali Wario (Jubilee) garnered 10,473 votes.
The county tallying centre was at Mau Mau Secondary School and security was heightened throughout the tallying process.
County Returning Officer Yonah Ogalo said when he announced the results that the heavy deployment of security personnel was necessitated by the security breach incident that occurred in the 2017 election where three lives were lost at Hola Secondary School which was the county tallying centre.
Godhana who defended the seat on ODM party thanked his campaign team for their relentless efforts saying, “I know it has not been an easy gamble this time and towards the end, we had to be very patient to wait for long hours”.
He lauded his competitors for the challenge they have given his team saying it has been a very competitive election and advised his competitors to accept the results and fight another day.
Hussein Dado arrived at the tallying centre after the results were declared and alleged that they have been denied a chance to verify and authenticate forms 37A.
“When we came, I sent the deputy governor and the chief agent to explain that we were not satisfied with how the tallying went and asked for a re-tallying. The difference between me and my competitor is said to be 259. That’s a very little difference and that just happened last night,’’ said the visibly agitated Hussein Dado.
Dado objected to the whole results terming the whole exercise a fiasco and they will analyze the whole data before deciding on the next course of action.
In the senatorial election former Garsen MP Danson Mungatana (UDA) bounced back in a resounding victory with 34,129 votes while his closest competitor Hassan Dukicha (Jubilee) had 18082 votes.
By Sadik Hassan
