NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 19 – A voter who allegedly registered 11 times is among 13,000 who will be prosecuted and barred from taking part in the General Election that is twelve days away.
The chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Issack Hassan says they have launched an investigation to establish how the voter from Mandera managed to get listed over 10 times.
The commission recently announced that up to 20,000 people had been found to have registered twice, insists that it will take action on the 13,000.
“We have just certified the register, we are going to give all the political parties copies and we will take action on those found to have intentionally registered more than once. So far the number stands at 13,000,” said Hassan.
The commission is racing against time to put in place all the necessary requirements before the historic election due on March 4.
Hassan and other commissioners spent the better part of Tuesday holding meetings at the Bomas of Kenya, the epicentre of the main election which will be used as a national tallying centre.
Among those the commissions met were members of the Kriegler Commission that probed the disputed presidential election of 2007.
Hassan says that the commission will also publish the names of candidates to be nominated after parties were asked to amend lists to meet the requirements of the Election Act.
“Initially the party lists had errors; parties did not meet the requirements of the constitution, some just brought names with no regard to gender issues and it took time for them to comply with corrective directives issued by the Commission,” added Hassan.
Hassan and commission CEO James Oswago both maintained that their electronic system for transmitting results was fool proof with near zero chances of being interfered with or manipulated.
Oswago said that the phones had been configured to particular destinations and that only data verified by agents of candidates and parties will be transmitted.
“Every party and candidate must give their agents firm instructions that they are there when the results are fed into the phone and transmitted,” Oswago said adding that it will also be difficult to temper with the IEBC sever used in transmitting results
Hassan maintained that the commission was now prepared to hold the voter simulation this Sunday at one polling station in each of the 1,450 County Assembly Wards (CAWs) to get better prepared for the election that is now 12 days away.
“We will use sample ballot papers with the same color so that people get the experience and so that we know how we can manage the queues and issuance of ballot papers whether we give two at a time or all the six,” the chairman added.
About 90,000 security officers will be used in the election and will; be deployed at every polling station the county tallying center and the national tallying center.
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