Low turnout, heavy security presence mar Bauchi south senatorial by-election

Low turnout of voters couple with the presence of heavily armed security presence marred the conduct of the Bauchi South Senatorial by-election held across seven local government areas of the state.

At most of the polling units visited in Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro local government areas, voters were seen trying to get accredited and cast their votes lamenting however that heavy security presence was a scare to them.

While monitoring the conduct of the by-election in Bagel\Bajel 001 poling unit in Dass local government area, voters waited patiently to be accredited due to malfunctioning of the card reader which was giving information as ‘invalidated reader’ a development the left the polling officials helpless.

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The presiding officer at the polling unit, Odiwe Lydia lamented that the voters did not turnout by 8am as scheduled despite the fact that they (poling officials) had been at the Bagel Central Primary School centre.

She added that the card reader malfunctioned because they did not have the opportunity to test run it before arriving the polling unit assuring however that as soon as the problem was resolved the exercise will be conducted.

At the Sarkin Arewa\Waziri Mazadu poling unit which has two poling centers, voters were seen been accredited and casting their votes though not as expected due to what was described as apathy and fear of the unknown considering the heavy presence of security personnel.

In Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro local government areas, the story was the same as the voters were reluctant to come out due to what some of them described as apathy.

While reacting to the conduct of the by-election, one of the candidates, Maryam Garba Bagel, lamented that efforts were made to ensure that she did not make positive impact in the by-election as some political bigwigs in the state went round to decampaing her.

Maryam Bagel who is the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) alleged that some unknown politicians went round to maliciously informed her supporters that she had stepped down from the race saying that it was a calculated attempt to ensure that she did not win the by-election.

She said: “from all indications, I am the candidate to beat in the by-election, so,the only way to get rid of me is to maliciously inform my supporters that I have stepped down from the race. But by the grace of God, we are in the race to spring surprise.”