Chebukati proposes key changes ahead of 2022 elections

The electoral body boss Wafula Chebukati has proposed an amendment to the constitution that would see the General Election held on two dates.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman proposes the presidential and parliamentary elections be held at the same time.

He also suggested that the vote for governors and ward representatives be pushed to a different date.

Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV on Wednesday morning, Mr Chebukati explained that some of the glitches that marred the 2017 election were partly due to fatigue.

CHANGE ELECTION DATE

“Part of the things we identified is having six elections in one day takes a toll on our staff because they are the same staff who do the polling from 6am to 5pm and then convert the polling rooms into counting rooms,” Chebukati said.

The recommendation would see the election date changed from the second Tuesday of August of every fifth year as dictated in the current law.

Chebukati who was speaking ahead of a post-election evaluation report of the 2017 polls set to be released in the week noted that despite the hitches, the 2017 poll ran pretty smoothly.

“We had six elections in one day. If you look at the 299 petitions filed in different courts, only 5 have succeeded so far. This shows it is a job very well done,” he added.

The proposition to have the General Election held on two dates goes way back to 2013 and had been fronted by the then Isaac Hassan-led team.

A staggered election model has worked in other countries especially in the United States where Senators are not all elected at the same time.

WHAT WENT WRONG IN 2017?

Chebukati who was put on the spotlight to explain what transpired in the 2017 poll that was deemed controversial defended the commission saying the poll was not compromised.

“I cannot say there were fishy things done; what I can say is that we had a number of challenges and it was not very smooth,” he noted.

An external audit that would lay bare what exactly happened during the poll is yet to be conducted as required by the law. .

Mr Chebukati says the commission has not been getting funds from the treasury and is currently unable to move forward with the required audit