IEBC Wants Additional Budget for Continuous Voter Registration

Speaking during the Electoral Reforms Stakeholders Forum held at a Nairobi hotel Tuesday, IEBC vice chairperson Lilian Mahiri-Zaja urged the government to increase budgetary allocation for the commission to enable it roll out annual voter registration exercise.

“We are not able to carry out a continuous voter registration exercise with the current budget at our disposal. The process is too costly and we can only manage it if the government increases our allocations,” she said.

Mahiri-Zaja also stated that the commission has completed an internal evaluation of the 2013 general elections and a process launched to rectify the mistakes made in the last elections in preparation for 2017.

She explained that the BVR kits worked fine during the elections though admitting that EVID and result transmission systems failed.

Mahiri-Zaja also stated that consultations are ongoing to determine whether to adopt the use of local languages in voter education with keen analysis on the implications on national unity.

Extension of deadline to submit names by IEBC

She further opposed calls for the use of waiting cards to register voters saying they do not guarantee that one will get an Identification Card.

“Waiting Cards do not guarantee that one will get an ID and therefore accepting them during voter registration will open up a fraudulent process,” she said.

On his part, Justice Luka Kimaru said the minimal time set between party nominations and IEBC deadline for submission of names should be extended to enable complainants to file their complains where any arise.

“Political nominations should be done between two weeks to two months to the deadline to allow for petitions to be heard and determined,” he said.

Justice Kimaru also advised political parties to push for the amendment of the Constitution to extend the period for the hearing of petitions in presidential elections at the Supreme Court from 14 to 30 days.

Other speakers at the event included Brian Weke the Executive Director, Institute for Education in Democracy (IED), Andrew Songa, Programme Manager, Transformative Justice at the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and Elsy Sainna Deputy Executive Director, ICJ.

By Benjamin Wafula