Have you seen voters register at your polling station?

Have you seen the voter register in any of the 40, 883 polling stations?

The register is now open for inspection right at the polling stations, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has said.

ONLINE

“We have a register of voters that has been gazetted and published online. It is important for the public to know all those details on polling stations and agents so that it is not a matter of conjecture but a matter of fact,” IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba said on Monday.

The commission, however, still has to publish a confirmation that the register is indeed open for the public inspection in 24 hours.

High Court judge George Odunga on Thursday ruled that the IEBC should, within 90 days from the notice for a General Election, open the register for inspection for at least 30 days or as necessary.

The register should, however, always be available for inspection to the public at all polling stations, by way of a web portal or any other medium approved by the IEBC.

DENIED

Justice Odunga ruled: “This court already has a duty to make the legal position clear with respect to the law, not only for the purposes of the forthcoming General Election, but for the future as well.”

Africog Director Gladwell Otieno had sought to have the IEBC publish the  register before Tuesday’s General Election.

Justice George Odunga declined to grant the application, saying that would interfere with the preparations and holding of the elections.

The IEBC had told the court that it had already made public the register for inspection.

The judge, therefore, asked the poll agency to simply publish a confirmation that that had been done, the manner in which it was carried out and the period it was to take place.

He said no evidence had been tabled in court to show that the register was made public.

PUBLIC VIEWS

He ordered that in future, the IEBC should at all times make public the register of voters as per the election laws and regulations to allow its particulars to be rectified if necessary.

But he pointed out that that should be done by the IEBC for a period it considers appropriate.

The judge said Ms Otieno had accused the IEBC of refusing to make public the register of voters, terming the action as one intended to considerably lock out public views and comments on it.

She alleged inconsistencies in numbers declared by the IEBC.

But the IEBC claimed that it had already created a web portal, www.voterstatus.iebc.or.ke, created a short message service short code 70000 and that continually published the number of polling stations as well as that of voters online.