Incumbent Northern Governor, Gary Juffa, says allegations of election fraud are absurd and calls on rival candidates to present evidence to back those claims.
Juffa said this in response to a petition signed by rival candidates contesting the Northern Regional Seat to re-check all ballot papers and locate the whereabouts of eight thousand unused ballot papers, which they claim may have been used in the count.
Their claims stem from the fact that Juffa has mustered a commanding lead in the Northern Regional race, adding it is unrealistic.
Incumbent Ijivitari MP and Regional candidate, David Arore, was reported on TVWAN news saying this was the biggest political fraud in the Province.
Social Democratic Party (SDP) Regional candidate, Jean Parkop, has also backed calls for the re-check and location of the unused ballot papers.
Juffa said he has not engaged in such ploys and will never do so and in fact, he had raised issue on the number of people turned away from voting as they were not on the electoral roll.
“I don’t engage in those type of activities. And in the meantime, you’ve got to respect the wishes of the people,” he said.
“I raised concern earlier, about the fact that we had an issue that there were a large number of people who were not on the electoral roll 2017.
“None of the candidates raised this issue.
“And it’s true, a lot of people were turned away and a large number of them were my supporters. But we went to the polls, and the polls have spoken. And I respect the wishes of the people.”
He said polling and counting have progressed well however, candidates who have not performed well are now crying out over alleged fraud.
Juffa said there is always the court of disputed returns.
“I think those allegations are completely absurd, if they have evidence then I’d like to see that evidence, I’m curious myself how they came across this,” he said.