By-elections to await new voter register

• Polls in South Mugirango and three wards put off by the IIEC

All by-elections have been put on hold until the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) registers voters countrywide.

The move means that polls in South Mugirango Constituency and three wards at the Coast will have to wait until the voters’ register is compiled.

The South Mugirango parliamentary seat fell vacant after Mr Omingo Magara lost an election petition.

IIEC chairman Isaack Hassan (right) said elections for South Mugirango and Sala, Mwembe Tayari and Changamwe wards would not go on without records of new voters being in place. The records are also crucial for the referendum.

Mr Hassan was responding to outcry from Sala residents who accused the commission of failing to give them a new councillor one year since the death of Halima Ramadhan in a road accident.

In telephone interview on Monday, the chairman urged residents to allow the IIEC to conduct all pending by-elections at the same time.

“We shall hold pending by elections after we have finished with national voter registration. We have not forgotten any vacant parliamentary or civic seats,” he added.

Cut off

Former Bura MP Ali Wario led Sala residents in protests, saying that since the death of their councillor in December 2008 had cut off them from government development plans initiated through Tana River County Council.

Changamwe and Mwembe Tayari wards at the Mombasa municipal council felt vacant following the death of Mr Kelvin Wesonga and abrupt resignation of Mr Abdallah F Abdallah, respectively.