New elective posts push up poll budget

The electoral commission will spend Sh37 billion to conduct the next General Election, the commission’s chief executive James Oswago has said.

He said the commission had already received Sh15 billion and was awaiting Sh22 billion to plan for the elections.

The amount was massive because of the number of elective posts involved.

“We have to prepare a roll of the presidency, the senators, members of the National Assembly, governors, women representatives and members of the county assembly,” Mr Oswago told the Nation over the weekend.

He said Sh4 billion will go to voter education and Sh6 billion to the electronic voter transmission in every constituency.

He reiterated that the commission was prepared for elections in August next year.

Mr Oswago added that though the issue of identity cards was still a challenge, they planned to register new voters.

He said the 2009 census results showed there were more than 22 million Kenyans above 18, while registered voters were only 12.4 million.

“If the issue of ID cards is solved on time, we target to register another seven million. We registered 12 million in 45 days, so we can manage the balance,” he said.

Mr Oswago said the requirement was for the commission to register at least 78 per cent of the total eligible voters, which is 19 million.

He said after the reconstitution of the Independent Boundaries Review Commission they will require four months to review constituency boundaries and register voters ahead of the elections slated for August.