IEBC in race against time to meet repeat poll timelines

IEBC in race against time to meet repeat poll timelines

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is facing a nightmare in beating some of its timelines in the run-up to the October 26 presidential election.

IEBC was slated to collect all the KIEMS kits from across the country by last week to upgrade them for the repeat elections but a court injunction in Embu has barred the commission from accessing its warehouse in the county. A similar order was issued by a Machakos court while in Nairobi, a voter petitioning the election of Governor Mike Sonko has also applied for the kits to be preserved.

According to the electoral commission’s timelines yet to be published, the kits should have undergone system software upgrade by Friday, September 22, to enhance its safety security features.

The kits, which will be used in identification of voters, are to be fed with the register of voters between the September 22 and September 29.

The electronic results transmission software provided by French tech company, OT-Morpho, is to be uploaded in the KIEMS kits next week and early October, paving way for a test run of the kits to ensure they are functioning efficiently.

The commission plans to set up the national tallying centre at Bomas between October 15 and 20A nationwide exercise to test the system for voter identification, scanning images of Forms 34A and 34B to be transmitted to the national tallying centre will be carried out mid October.

Already the electoral agency is considering etaining its returning officers from the last election but take them through a detailed training of the duties they are supposed to undertake in a bid not to avoid mistakes that led to the nullification of the August 8 presidential poll.

“From an operational point of view we believe we don’t have much time. We have reviewed all our materials and realized where we had shortcomings leading to the bungled election. We are not ready to repeat the same mistakes,” said Commissioner, Roslyne Akombe.

Proper training for IEBC polling officials begins on October 1 while voter education drive kicks off on October 4.

Tags:

raila odinga JUBILEE President Uhuru Kenyatta NASA presidential election Election Petition Repeat election

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