Electoral commission to conduct mock polls

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Issack Hassan will be in Kajiado North Constituency on Wednesday to launch mock election voter education.

This will be at Ngong Watakatifu Catholic Centre ahead of Saturday’s mock election in preparation for the general elections on March 4 next year.

The commission mock election will gauge its preparedness for the March general election starting in Malindi and Kajiado North Constituencies on Saturday.

In Malindi constituency, 21 out of the 84 polling stations will participate. The mock election in Kajiado North will involve 12 polling stations.

The 2012 general elections will be different in that Kenyans will vote for six positions — President, MP, Governor, Women Representative, Senator and County Assembly Member.

Previously, voting was for President, MP and Councillor.

The commission will seek to understand, among other things, the time it takes a voter to mark and cast the six ballots. Six ballot boxes will be used.

The boxes will be coloured differently. The Commission will use imaginary candidates with caricatured images for the mock elections.

For each election, a minimum of four candidates will be chosen in a move to provide voters with genuine options- and therefore competition- as is expected in a real election.

“The candidates will be assigned local names to domesticate the contest. The rationale for using the caricatures is to pre-empt potential controversies