Chiloba's leave has no effect on poll: IEBC official

Poll agency chief executive officer Ezra Chiloba at County hall before the Parliamentary select committee during proceedings on changes to election laws, on October 5, 2017. He has gone on leave. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Chiloba has started a three-week leave of absence from the IEBC.
  • Prof Abdi Guliye said the senior management is handling the actual operations.

DUBAI

Poll agency chief executive officer Ezra Chiloba’s proceeding on leave will not affect preparations for the election, a member of the electoral commission has said.

Prof Abdi Guliye said even with Dr Roselyn Akombe’s departure, decisions are still being made at the plenary and the senior management is handling the actual operations.

“Five days, six days to the elections, all the processes are complete. His departure will not have much of an impact on the elections. There wasn’t any decision Ezra was making on his own,” Prof Guliye told journalists in Dubai.

AKOMBE LEAVES
The commissioner is leading a delegation that went to monitor the printing of the ballot papers, result forms and other material by Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing firm, ahead of the October 26 election.

Dr Akombe abandoned the team in Dubai and travelled to New York.

Mr Chiloba has started a three-week leave of absence from the IEBC, which partly fulfils demands by the Nasa that he should not oversee the repeat election.

TENSION
Like the CEO, Prof Guliye was the subject of the Nasa attacks in the wake of the annulment of the August 8 presidential election by the Supreme Court.

He maintained the attacks against him were unfair given that he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the commission and there were other commissioners whose dockets contributed to the damning decision of the judges.

With the printing complete and dispatch to Nairobi started, all that remains is distribution to constituencies.

But with tension and anxiety because of the assertion by Nasa that the election will not happen, there is no certainty that the poll will take place.