Raila asks IEBC not to launch its 2017 election plan

Cord leader Raila Odinga led a delegation of opposition politicians for talks with electoral commission officials ahead of Thursday’s launch of a strategic plan expected to guide how the 2017 General Election will be conducted.

The opposition leaders, who included Mr Moses Wetang’ula (Ford-Kenya) and Martha Karua (Narc-K), insisted that the plan by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) be put on hold to give them time to study it.

“They have given us a summarised version of the strategic plan but we were not party to what gave birth to the strategy,” said Mr Odinga at a joint press conference with the IEBC officials, led by the IEBC vice-chairman, Ms Lilian Mahiri Zaja. The press conference was held at the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi yesterday.

The commission’s Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 has proposed a raft of reforms aimed at ensuring that the next elections are free, fair and transparent.

Among these are proposed amendments to the Constitution and reviewing of electoral laws and regulations to eliminate the impediments which prompted Opposition leaders and civil society groups to challenge the outcome of the last presidential elections in court.

“The mission is to hold an election that is efficient, effective and credible. We want all observers to return a verdict declaring the 2017 General Election free, fair and credible,” said the IEBC chief executive officer, Mr Ezra Chiloba.

However, Mr Odinga asked the commission to postpone the launch of the strategic plan. He said that he had raised various concerns with the IEBC officials, including how they conducted the last General Election, the ongoing voter registration, difficulties in accessing identity cards, diaspora voter registration and security.

“We have had very open engagement on a number of issues. We have discussed what went wrong in the last elections,” he said.

However, when asked about his earlier position that the commission should be disbanded, Mr Odinga said: “This is the commission that is still working and that is not the issue right now.”

Earlier in the day, his spokesman, Mr Dennis Onyango, had sent a press statement to newsrooms enumerating the issues that Cord wanted the commission to address, including corruption.

“On the question of corruption, some of the current and previous officials of IEBC have been mentioned in the court of competent jurisdiction as participating in past corrupt electoral practices — what actions has the IEBC taken to address the issue of the so called ‘chickengate’ for instance?” Mr Onyango asked.

He also accused the IEBC chairman, Mr Ahmed Issack Hassan, of having a personal bias against Mr Odinga. He quoted an affidavit that Mr Hassan had filed in the Supreme Court during the hearing of the election petition that Mr Odinga had filed in 2013.

Mr Onyango said the affidavit demonstrated Mr Hassan’s contempt against Mr Odinga. Mr Hassan did not attend yesterday meeting between IEBC officials and Mr Odinga’s team.

Ms Zaja said although they had had positive discussions with Mr Odinga’s team, no decision had been reached on whether to proceed with today’s launch of the strategic plan.

“This meeting has heralded the beginning of fresh engagements with the Opposition,” she said. “We do not want to make a decision here on whether the launch will be postponed or not. The commission will meet and decide.”

Ms Karua said that the Opposition leaders were suspicious of the IEBC move to launch the plan and warned that they would not be party to it if it is launched without proper engagement of all stakeholders.

“Our concern is that this commission has not been engaging the Opposition. We expect that a commission like this should be independent. When it is one sided, we then become very afraid,” said Ms Karua.

Mr Chiloba said IEBC had lined up amendments to the Constitution on provisions touching on presidential and parliamentary petitions.

“There is need to enact amendments and new laws and regulations to strengthen the framework for effective management of elections,” says the plan prepared by IEBC. “Some of the areas with gaps include: timelines for completion of voter registration, diaspora voting, voter education, dispute resolution during and after elections among others.”

The proposed changes are expected to resolve more than 90 per cent of legal challenges that the IEBC encountered in the last elections.

Once the laws are amended by Parliament, IEBC intends to have registered 22.4 million voters three months before the 2017 elections. This would represent an addition of eight million voters to the register.

The commission also intends to buy technological devices, among them biometric voter registration kits, electronic voter identification devices and a results transmission system in time and subject them to tests before the elections.

“The timely acquisition and testing of the technology before deployment is important. This will enable the commission to foster trust and confidence in the electoral process,” the plan says.

The commission will also increase the number of polling stations from 33,000 in the last elections, to ensure that each station serves a maximum of 500 voters. It expects to meet this target by June 2016.

During voting, the commission will ensure that each voter takes a maximum of seven minutes in the polling station to ensure all eligible people take part in the elections.

It also hopes to put in place a system ensuring that results are tallied and transmitted with the set timelines with an accuracy of 100 per cent.