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Alexander Okere, Benin
There was confusion on Wednesday at Ward 8 in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, when voters and party agents disagreed over the validity or invalidity of some thumb-printed ballot papers during the governorship election.
Accreditation and voting had commenced smoothly in the different polling units located in Eyanugie Primary School as scheduled.
But a disagreement suddenly ensued when some ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission began the sorting of the ballot papers.
It took the intervention of some security operatives stationed at the polling units to calm the crowd down and allow the INEC personnel to continue with the sorting.
Some supporters of the All Progressives Congress were heard urging the INEC personnel to void the ballot papers which they claimed were not clearly thumb-printed for the Peoples Democratic Party.
One of them, who later identified himself as Esosa, said, “Some of the ballot papers were not properly thumb-printed and INEC said that the ink should not go beyond the space meant for a political party.
“I think the proper thing to do is to render them invalid.”
But one of the PDP supporters, who did not want to be mentioned, described the position of the APC agent as an opinion that would not be accepted.
“How can he say that the ballot paper was not properly thumb-printed? Did he not see that the thumb-print was in the space meant for the PDP?
“If they (APC supporters) think it was not properly done, then they should leave the papers for the INEC staff to sort out,” the PDP supporter said.
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