2023 Elections: Protests in Bayelsa over lack of ballot papers

The news: The 47-unit Ward 4, Epie 1, which includes the communities of Agudama and Akenpai, is the site of the protesters who are adamant that elections will not take place there until the missing ballots are replaced.

The Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO), Austin Atekere, explained the development to Tribune Online by claiming that when he and his colleagues received the materials from the INEC headquarters in Yenagoa, they were not organized until they arrived at the ward headquarters.

Only when we arrived at our headquarters did we discover that all the ballots for the other elections had been completed, save for the one for the House Representatives. Only 15,000 ballots were provided, despite the fact that the ward has about 50,000 registered voters.