Hassan Noor at the Milimani Law Court in Nairobi. He is challenging Mandera Governor Ali Roba’s election victory. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
Former Mandera gubernatorial aspirant Hassan Noor on Tuesday told the court that his votes were swapped with those of his opponent Ali Roba during the August 8 General Election.
Mr Noor who had moved to court to challenge the election of Mandera Governor Ali Roba claimed that 17 strangers were brought in as returning officers yet they had not been shortlisted.
Mr Noor told the court that the ‘strangers' who were acting as returning officers were people well known to Roba.
He said that he alerted the voters about the 'strangers' who had been deployed as presiding officers by pinning a list of their names at every polling station.
Those who had been trained by IEBC to oversee the election as presiding officers were not posted to polling centers, he claimed.
Mr Noor further claimed that the election was not conducted in accordance with the law as he seeks a nullification of Roba’s victory.
Mr Noor through his lawyer Tom Ojienda said presiding officers were deliberately delayed from reporting to their polling stations, the day before elections, to enable their replacement with the ‘strangers’.
“The acts of omission were rampant and the election fundamentally flawed, making it completely impossible to determine whether the results as announced by the Returning Officer were the true, accurate and lawful results that reflected the will of voters,” lawyer Ojienda said as quoted by the Star.
Mr Roba garnered 71,890 votes against 63,003 for Mr Noor who wants the results annulled.