Printing of ballot papers to start

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) now says that the printing of ballot papers for the repeat presidential elections will kick off by the end of this week despite protests by National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition.

Speaking during a meeting with various election observers at IEBC headquarters in Nairobi , IEBC Commissioner Dr Roselyn Akombe said political parties rejected offer by the United Nations Development Programme to procure ballot papers and results forms.

While exuding confidence in the commission’s preparedness for the October 26th repeat poll, Dr Akombe called on all Kenyans to play their part in ensuring that the elections are free and fair.

“In terms of logistics and technical operations, as a Commission we are confident we will be able to deliver a free, fair and credible poll. We will involve the media in all our operations and also allow live coverage in all constituencies,” Dr Akombe said.

The Opposition coalition, however, continues to push the electoral body to procure a different ballot printing company besides the Dubai-based Al Ghurair Printing Company that was awarded the tender to print the August 8 General Election ballot papers, accusing the firm of colluding with IEBC to print additional and unconventional ballot papers which they allege were used to rig in Jubilee’s President Uhuru Kenyatta.

While detailing on the steps taken to ensure results are transmitted in an open and credible manner, Dr Akombe insisted that results verification will be done at the constituency level before the returning officer and party agents sign the final form.

We’ll take our time

Citizen Digital has learnt that returning officers will be required to physically deliver constituency-based results to the National Tallying Center at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi before the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, can declare the winner.

“We have seven days. We will not be rushed to announce the results and we will not allow any pressure to our returning officers to announce results,” said Dr Akombe.

One of the undoing of the electoral commission’s chairperson during the presidential election petition at the Supreme Court was failure to verify the results he had received before declaring victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta.

To cure the anomaly, all the 290 constituency returning officers (CROs) will be required to, after submitting the scanned forms 34B via the electronic results transmission system, submit the original forms at the National Tallying Centre.

The poll body further affirmed that the reconfiguring of the KIEMS kits will also be done in good time against reports of time constraints.

The commission further named Safaricom as their main network provider. The number of polling centres with no network coverage have since been reduced from 11,000 to 3,000.

The commission was also keen to note that any returning officers who were implicated in any electoral malpractice in the August 8th election will not be part of this election.

The meeting was held amid demonstrations by NASA supporters seeing the removal of IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba and other commissioners ahead of the poll.