All the 173 Polling Centres across Lugari Constituency opened at 6 am with voters thronging at the Centres ready to choose their preferred leaders.
Constituency IEBC Coordinator, Jeremiah Kerich, said all the Polling Centres witnessed long queues of voters who braved early morning cold to participate in this year’s historic General Elections.
Kerich said a total of 86, 908 registered voters are expected to elect their leaders within Six Wards in the Constituency.
The IEBC Coordinator said there was a challenge of identifying some elderly people electronically before voting and that the matter has been reported in isolated polling stations.
He said the IEBC officials have other methods of identifying the voters whose finger prints have failed through electronic means.
According to him, voters will not be identified manually as the court ruled out yesterday the use of manual registers.
“We have other means of identifying voters whose finger prints have failed and in this case manual registers will not be used as the court directed,” Kerich said.
Kerich said the voters are choosing their preferred President, Senator, Woman Representative and their Member of County Assembly.
He maintained that voters are not electing their preferred Governor in the entire Kakamega County because the ballot papers delivered had different instructions.
Meanwhile, security team led by the Sub-County Police Commander, Bernard Ngungu, has assured residents that the government has put all the necessary measures to ensure voters participate in voting without security challenges.
Ngungu has, however, advised the voters to go home after voting at the Polling Centres and always keep-off unnecessary groups which have been discouraged by the security team.
“I am asking our voters to always go home after participating in the election process at the Polling Centres. I am confirming we have put all necessary measures across the six Wards to ensure voters have their peace this period,” Ngungu insisted.
A spot check done by KNA revealed that the voting exercise in both Lugari and Likuyani Constituencies began smoothly and the voters who spoke to us said they were satisfied with the time taken during the voting process.
By Geoffrey Satia
