[Uasin Gishu County Governor Jackson Mandago. Photo/Hivisasa.com]
Confusion has marked supporters of the ruling Jubilee Party in Uasin Gishu County, after kicking off nominations, in the North Rift county, Friday morning.
Reports of insufficient or no ballot papers were reported in various polling stations in the county's headquarters, Eldoret, including at the MV Patel voting centre, which is the biggest in the town.
Voters expressed dissatisfaction, accusing the president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto-led party, of failing to put up measures, to avert such cases.
Area governor, Jackson Mandago, who seeks the party's ticket to defend his seat, urged fellow aspirants to boycott the nomination exercise, citing use of the old 2013 voters' register, insufficient ballot papers, and possible rigging.
He said voting would not continue, after an agreement with 'all' aspirants and some supporters and Jubilee party members in the county.
"As we speak now, a lot of voting centres have no ballot papers. As we speak, a station like Langas, which has over 11,000 voters but it has received 1,000 ballot papers, yet right now, over 3,000 voters are ready to vote,'' Mandago told supported at the Eldoret Sports Club.
Accompanied by MPs Oscar Sudi (Kapseret), Silas Tiren (Moiben), among others, Mandago added: "So we have agreed, that voting will not continue due to this hitches. They can set the exercise on any other day when they are ready.''
"Second, we all participated in the voter registration exervise that just ended. We all want to be included in the voting exercise since it captured a good number of us. We have discovered that the register being used is of 2013.''
''In Uasin Gishu, we registered 106,000 new voters who we want to be part of this exercise. So it is a must we want an updated register,'' Mandago said, amid cheers from the crowd.
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At Uasin Gishu Primary School polling station, officials said they had received insufficient ballot papers.
Area Woman Representative seat aspirant who also seeks the Jubilee Party ticket, Gladys Shollei, complained over the same, terming it 'poor preparations for the Jubilee Party primaries'.
The former Judiciary Registrar toured MV Patel Memorial Hall polling centre in Eldoret and urged voters to be calm.
However, in a quick rejoinder, Jubilee Party secretary general Raphael Tuju dismissed the Uasin Gishu county aspirants' move to boycott and call off the exercise, saying they lack legal mandate to do so.