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Kenya

IIEC urged to eliminate register flaws

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 27 – The Elections Observation Group (ELOG) now wants the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) to audit and clean up the voters\’ register to enhance its accuracy.

This comes after a report revealed that the register contained inaccurate entries, which ELOG’s steering committee member Peter Alingo said diminished its accuracy and would cause delays in future elections.

"We would like to see the inaccuracies, the mismatches, the wrong spellings and wrong entries that we saw during the referendum dealt with and removed," he said. "The IIEC and stakeholders need to conduct a thorough scientific investigation and audit." 

He was speaking during the release of a report on the August 4 Constitution referendum where he stated that the use of technology should be made a permanent feature of the country\’s elections.

"We want to see an adoption of cost effective technology at all levels of the electoral management and administration, not just voter registration and results transmission," he said.

Mr Alingo further noted that division of responsibility between the commissioners and the technical staff at the secretariat was still not clear. He observed that the commissioners were the ones still doing most of the actual ground work as opposed to staff at the secretariat.

IIEC chairman Issack Hassan said this year\’s referendum set precedence for subsequent elections but observed that there were a few challenges that the commission encountered.

He lauded the role played by observers saying it went a long way in enhancing the credibility of the commission.

"The referendum on August 4 was not only a litmus test to the commission but also to Kenyans with regards to maturity and tolerance with the way we handle the elections," he said. "I am glad to say that as a commission we have done well but there is room for improvement. There were indeed expected challenges but we managed them."

The IIEC chairman further pointed out that the Elections Bill which is currently being drafted will enable the commission streamline its operations.

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"The Elections Bill which has been in the oven and cooking for some time now is in the final stage of being prepared," he said.

"Learning from our lessons of managing by-elections and managing the referendum, we should be able to input into the Elections Bill," he added.

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