Conditions for free and fair poll that IEBC, parties must create

Voters queue to cast their votes during Ford Kenya primaries at Muliro Gardens, Kakamega, on April 21,2017. PHOTO | ISAAC WALE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • This year’s General Election must deepen the devolved constitutional democracy adopted in 2010.
  • It is an act of bad faith for any of the political parties to create a toxic atmosphere that hampers peaceful elections.
  • The transparency of the register is vital in the run-up to the August 8 elections.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) must deliver transparent, credible, free and fair elections on August 8.

It is the only hope to guarantee durable peace and political stability.

This year’s General Election must deepen the devolved constitutional democracy adopted in 2010.

Elections without integrity undermine public trust, pushing people towards undemocratic alternatives to effect change.

It is an act of bad faith for any of the political parties to create a toxic atmosphere that hampers peaceful elections.

The IEBC must give equal opportunities to all the political parties to partake in the decisions and processes.

TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS

Civil society must hold politicians and the IEBC to a higher level of scrutiny to enable free, fair and transparent elections.

In the 2013 General Election, the voter register was so seriously flawed as to undermine the credibility of the poll.

As a result, the IEBC has been unable to publish the final results.

The transparency of the register is vital in the run-up to the August 8 elections.

To ensure transparent, credible, free and fair elections, the following are crucial: All voter registers must be fully biometric.

TRANSPARENT BALLOT BOXES

The printing of ballot papers must be supervised by the political parties.

On the polling day, ballot boxes must be transparent.

A voter who arrives at the polling station must have his or her identity confirmed in the register; and verified by the biometric device.

The voter is then given a ballot paper validated by a stamp; and must dip his finger in indelible ink, and his biometric barcode deactivated, making it impossible for him to vote again.

Ballot paper acquisition should be closely monitored by political party agents, candidates’ agents, observers, journalists and the public.

PAPERS SERIALISED

Ballot papers must be serialised and reconciled with the Electronic Voter Identification Device (EVID) immediately after voting and before ballot counting can start.
At the end of the voting, the sorting of ballots should be done in the open as well as the counting, declaration, recording of the results declared, and transportation of the declared polling station results and ballot papers to the constituency collation centre.

This should also be followed by the representatives of the political parties and security personnel.

At the constituency collation centre, party agents must first confirm that the results are the same ones declared at the polling station.

The collation must be done in front of candidates, their agents, journalists, and observers.

RESULTS DECLARED

At the end of the collation, the constituency results must be declared.

At the national results collation centre, representatives of parties must confirm the figures with their agents at the constituency before tallying.

After the collation, the party representatives must again confirm that the figures are accurate for all the 290 constituencies before the final declaration is made.

Presidential results at the polling station and constituency level must be published before being electronically transmitted to the national headquarters.

Kenyans are demanding verifiable, accurate and transparent voter registers with ONLY REAL voters enlisted through Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) and identified by EVID. Only the EVID-recognised voters should vote.

CONSTITUENCY LEVEL

Back-up must also be electronic. Anything manual must reflect or be a product of an electronic process. The BVR devices must be standalone and not connected to any other electronic device on a grid/platform that can be hacked into.

Counting, collation and announcement of results must end at the constituency level as required by the Constitution.

There should be no counting before a reconciliation of the ballot papers used, duplicates and EVID confirmation of the ballots cast.

Real time results at each polling station must be made public upon being certified and declared.

RESULTS VERIFIED

All the results that have been verified, accurately recorded/signed by party/candidates and observers and declared at the polling station are sent to the constituency collation centre and counter checked with the polling station figures.

The results announced at the constituency by the returning officer, in accordance with Article 86 of the Constitution of Kenya, are final. Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) must be done by independent bodies and observers to provide accurate information on the voting and counting.

This is the only way to verify the accuracy of the official election results.

Mr Wainaina is the executive director, International Centre for Policy and Conflict. [email protected]