IEBC rejects use of waiting cards in voter listing
What you need to know:
The commission launched a campaign on Monday to register new voters as well as help those who want to shift their polling stations by February 14.
It is targeting six million new voters and both Jubilee and opposition leaders have set out to rally their supporters to list.
he electoral commission says it registering an average of 2,000 per county per day in the month-long listing that started on Monday.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission CEO Ezra Chiloba on Wednesday said the agency was upbeat the number would rise.
"The commission is pleased with the turnout and interest from Kenyans in this exercise," he told journalists at IEBC headquarters at Anniversary Towers, Nairobi.
However, Mr Chiloba said the commission would not accept waiting cards to register voters despite calls by politicians to rope in many young people without IDs.
ABUSE
The law, he said, no longer allows them to use waiting cards.
"We do not use waiting cards for registration of voters, and this is following the amendments on the Elections Act," he said.
"The logic is also very simple - there is no ID number on the waiting card and yet you are telling the same person to register with the waiting card. So there is some disconnect and potential for abuse."
Waiting cards are simply certificates given to applicants of national identity cards as proof of application.
3 WEEKS
But they only bear serial numbers as not every application is successful.
Previously, the IEBC registered voters with these slips, with voters being asked to provide full details during registration verification.
But the Elections Act was amended to remove that possibility.
It means many potential voters who lack IDs will have just under three weeks to look for them.
6 MILLION
The commission launched a campaign on Monday to register new voters as well as help those who want to shift their polling stations by February 14.
It is targeting six million new voters and both Jubilee and opposition leaders have set out to rally their supporters to list.
Meanwhile, voters in Mandera East and Lafey constituencies will participate in the August elections using the boundaries IEBC drew in 2012, Mr Chiloba said.
He said the electoral agency adopted the new map after the Court of Appeal quashed a High Court ruling that had opposed the new boundaries.
