New Patriotic Party parliamentary hopeful in the Yendi constituency, Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, has alleged that an official of the Electoral Commission (EC) attempted to pocket some ballot papers with her name in his pockets.
She accused the EC official, whose name is not readily known, of taking that action to reduce her votes.
Violence erupted in the Yendi constituency on Saturday, January 27, 2024, during the counting of ballots.
The poll was between the incumbent Yendi MP, Farouk Aliu Mahama, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah.
During an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Hajia Abibata believed that there was an error during the counting of the votes.
“The problem started when it got to sorting, and it was not done in a very transparent manner. They [EC] asked the media to move away, and they cordoned themselves. Nobody could see what they were sorting. In the course of counting, the EC officer got to 69 and then jumped to 80. Everybody was oh oh, that was when someone drew the attention of our team that one of the EC officials was hoarding my ballot papers and destroying them,” he told Umaru Sanda Amadu.
She said the EC official denied the claims when he was confronted about his actions, stressing that it led to the chaos.
“An ink was found in the jacket of the EC official who hoarded my ballot papers, suppressing them and putting them in his pockets. When my brother asked him what he was doing, he said he was not doing anything. There are videos to this effect; he was reducing my ballot papers for whatever reason, I don’t know. That infuriated some of my supporters, and that led to the chaos,” she recounted.
Hajia Abibata Zakariah indicated that the NPP doesn’t have a parliamentary candidate in Yendi yet because the counting process was disrupted.
“There was chaos, ballot papers were destroyed. We don’t have a candidate for Yendi because counting was not concluded, and ballot papers were destroyed. Whatever happened in Yendi was not transparent in terms of sorting,” she pointed out.
She has petitioned the party leadership over the issue.
A national 3rd vice-chairman, regional organizer, regional general secretary, and regional treasurer of the NPP in the Northern region declared the incumbent MP Farouk Mahama as the parliamentary candidate-elect.
But the EC, in a statement, distanced itself from the Yendi results, adding that the results have not been declared yet.
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