Sudden rain disrupts voting in Abuja, counting begins in Kwali council

Counting of ballot has started in Kwali Area Council of Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal capital Territory, FCT amid heavy rainfall.

The election, earlier scheduled to hold on March 19 but later rescheduled, held in the six FCT area councils on Saturday to elect officials who would pilot the councils’ affairs in the next three years.

Vote counting began at the Angwan Hakimi polling unit at 2:12 p.m., while in the Post Office polling unit, counting began around 1:15 p.m.

At the Police Barrack polling unit, counting began at 12:00 p.m.

In the other polling centres, which had yet to complete the voting process, voters were seen waiting to exercise their franchise, in spite of the gusty winds and heavy rains.

Also in Bwari Area Council, hundreds of voters who trooped out for the exercise had to run helter-skelter to seek refuge from the rains.

Some of the voters, who spoke to NAN, said that the rainfall was a major setback, as some voters might not return to cast their vote.

However, Mr Shittu Tata, the INEC Electoral Officer in-charge of Bwari Area Office, told NAN that voting might be extended if the rains continued till 4:00p.m.

“We are bound to stop voting at 4 p.m. but if the rain continues to fall at the time voting is expected to end; we will have no other option than to extend the voting period.

“We will use our discretion to extend the time if the rain persists, so as to enable more voters to exercise their franchise,’’ Tata said.

NAN reports that the electoral officers were seen, busy moving electoral materials from polling centres due to the rain.