GHOST REGISTER? Opposition says IEBC auditing ‘unknown’ voter register

The opposition has casted doubt over the voter register exercise by audit firm, KPMG, contracted by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Opposition leaders, Raila Odinga of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) and Musalia Mudavadi of the Amani National Congress (ANC), say that the process is not genuine as the country is not aware of the voter register to be audited.

The two argue that IEBC is in possession of multiple voter registers including the one used to rig the 2013 elections and Kenyans need to know the one to be audited.

“Kenyans know that IEBC has several registers that were used in the rigging of the 2013 elections. IEBC knows it too,” argues the opposition.

“As KPMG is being appointed to audit the register, nobody knows which register is being audited.”

The opposition has also questioned the method to be used by KPMG to audit the voter register.

“Nobody knows what the methodology, parameters and standards are against which the audit will take place. In essence IEBC plans to audit its own register in an opaque manner known only to itself and against the spirit of the negotiated settlement,” added the opposition.

“During the 2013 election petitions, it was clear that IEBC had multiplicity of registers, all with different details. To date, to our knowledge, IEBC has no single master register that is clean and known to all players.”

The opposition now says that is a clear sign of planned rigging of the 2017 elections.

The leaders have also questioned the capacity of KPMG to audit the voter register arguing that the firm has no known record in electoral processes and that no biometrics of voters available.

“The so-called audit by KPMG is set to take place without the biometrics of voters which is part of the requirement in the negotiated law,” said the opposition leaders.

“The audit also ought to be carried out after voters have confirmed that they are in the register so that the confirmed register becomes the master register.”

“That aside, there is no known record of KPMG experience with voter-related audit. How it won the contract remains everyone’s guess. It has been hired as a user-friendly firm to do the bidding of Jubilee and discredited IEBC commissioners who have a score to settle with CORD,” added the opposition leaders.

Odinga and Mudavadi, who are in talks to form a coalition – the National Super Alliance (NASA), say all the IEBC processes have proceeded with the exclusion of the technical committee on ICT whose involvement is part of the new election laws.