Take charge of voter listing in counties, Cord governors told

What you need to know:

  • Cord plans the additional four million votes would help counter Jubilee's tyranny of numbers in the 2017 polls.
  • Cord governors were asked to dedicate cash and youths to comb through villages and knock doors to ensure all those who are eligible register as voters. 
  • Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka accused the electoral commission of skewed allocation of voter listing equipment.

Cord coalition leaders have asked governors aligned to their parties to spearhead voter listing in the counties as it becomes clear that the 2017 elections could be won or lost on voter registration.

Monday, the opposition chiefs also reiterated that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission would be held responsible for “the skewed distribution of Biometric Voter Registration kits and its consequences today and in future”.

On Sunday night, Cord leaders Raila Odinga (ODM), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper) and Moses Wetang’ula of Ford Kenya met the governors at Kisumu’s Acacia Hotel where they urged the county bosses to push for high voter registration in their regions.

SKEWED ALLOCATION OF BVR KITS

The thinking in Cord, according to those who attended the meeting, is that an additional four million voters would help the coalition counter Jubilee’s ‘tyranny of numbers’ in the election next year.

The governors were asked to dedicate cash and youths to comb through villages and knock doors to ensure all those who are eligible register as voters. 

Voter registration started across the country Monday.

The Cord leaders addressed the governors during a night-long meeting at the hotel. Most of the governors had arrived on Sunday evening and hurriedly left the hotel Monday morning without addressing the media.

But speaking to journalists at Kisumu’s Jomo Kenyatta Grounds Monday after inspecting registration centres, Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka accused the electoral commission of skewed allocation of voter listing equipment.

The Opposition chiefs said they would seek audience with the polls team over the matter.

They also demanded extension of the 30-day registration by a month.

“We have looked at the way they are distributing the BVR kits and it is skewed in favour of certain regions. We want to see fairness. The commission should use population instead of area size as the  criteria for the distribution. They are not registering land,” Mr Odinga said.

He went on: “Voter registration is a constitutional requirement and the IEBC has no excuse over cash. We urge Parliament to take the opportunity to provide funding to the commission when they discuss supplementary budgets next month.”