Kenya sets voter registration for December

Kenya will start to build a new voter register in December in preparation of referendum on a new constitution expected in April next year.

According to a progress report prepared by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, the process will be automated in what is seen as one of the ways to improve the credibility of the voters’ roll.

In the report, the IIEC tells the parliamentary committee on justice and legal affairs that it is currently putting together its secretariat of 237 officers ahead of the exercise. The report notes that the recruitment of 10 executives, 17 regional coordinators and 210 constituency elections coordinators will end at the end of November.

Speaking to the Daily Nation on Friday, IIEC chairman Isaack Hassan said that the new electoral staff are expected to report to work on December 1. It is after this, he added, that the Electoral body will be able to kick off the registration exercise.

“We expect to be through with the recruitment exercise by the end of the month and then embark on the voter registration exercise which is one of our mandates stipulated in law,” said Mr Hassan.

The IIEC is one of the reform bodies that was established after the 2007 disputed presidential elections. It replaced the Electoral Commission of Kenya, which was disbanded for bungling the polls, to reform the country’s electoral system.

The country’s voter register which was said to contain up to a million dead voters was thrown out together with the electoral body.

The secretariat which is being set up by the IIEC is half that which ran the elections in 2007 and was sent packing after the polls.

There have been calls for an expedited voter registration exercise in the country as only two constituencies - Bomachoge and Shinyalu, which held by elections in August - that have voters. The voter roll is vital as the draft constitution which is to be published any time from now must be subjected to a referendum by April next year.

The IIEC says that it is setting up a new computerised structure that will be used to conduct and manage elections in future. It says that it has been exposing the commissioners to international electoral process that are automated.

An automated system is seen as one of the ways that can help curb multiple registration of voters that has in the past been used to rig elections.

The IIEC also presented to the Mohammed Abdikadir led committee two bills - Elections Bill, 2009 and the Electoral Commission Bill, 2009 - that propose a radical shift in Kenya’s electoral conduct and management.

The two bills promise to overhaul the country’s electoral system in a move that will see independent legal frameworks to govern elections and the electoral commission of Kenya. The bills are to be published by the end of December.

Among the major changes is the trimming down of the electoral body, limit in the number of years they should serve and introduce direct election of mayors by the electorate.

In a departure from the past, the Electoral Commission Bill will further cut down the country’s electoral body to between four and six members. The defunct ECK had 22 commissioners while the IIEC has nine.

The new body will take over from the Interim Independent Electoral Commission whose mandate expires in December 2010.

Under the new law, parliament will propose the membership of the ECK while the appointment will lie in the president. Previously, the appointment of the electoral body was left to the president, which is one of the reasons given for the perceived lack of independence of the former commissioners.

The Elections Bill on the other hand will see the repeal of the National Assembly and Parliamentary Elections Act and the Election Offences Act. Sections of the Local Government Act will also be repealed in the process bring all laws governing conduct of elections under one Act.

The Elections Bill proposes that the election of mayors be conducted at the same time with those of councillors. Mayors are usually elected by the councillors but the new law will see the citizens make the choice.