Parties, independents to have say on election supervisors

Political parties and independent candidates will now have a say on the list of returning officers to supervise the August 8 election.

This follows a consent entered into between the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the National Super Alliance on Thursday. In the consent, the electoral agency is to furnish the political parties and the independent candidates with its proposed list.

The political parties and independent candidates will then have up to July 7 to scrutinise the list and make their recommendations including the removal or re-deployment of some of the returning officers or their deputies from one station or another.

Under the terms of the consent, the commission will be under obligation to incorporate the recommendations of the political parties and independent candidates in the composition of the final list.

IEBC’s communications manager Andrew Limo and Nasa lawyer Arnold Ochieng Oginga both confirmed that the two parties had entered into a consent on the matter that had initially threatened to split the commission down the middle in late April.

“The consent was entered yesterday between Nasa and the commission. Nasa had challenged the proposed list of returning officers released by IEBC on the basis that IEBC had not complied with election regulations,” said Mr Oginga.

“Under the regulations IEBC is, prior to any appointments of returning officers, required to provide the list of persons it proposed to appoint to all registered political parties and approved independent candidates before the proposed date of their appointment so that the parties and independent candidates make their representations on the names,” he added.

Said IEBC’s Limo on his part: “We have agreed with Nasa that we shall publish the list and put it on our website and, if they have any input, they can do so within 14 days.”

DISSEMINATE LIST

The consent requires IEBC to disseminate its proposed list of the election officials on its website and also publish it in two newspapers of national circulation.

It further states that the political parties and eligible independent candidates shall be free to make their observations on the proposed names in writing to the electoral commission.

It also requires IEBC to take into consideration the observations from the parties and independent candidates when publishing its final list.

The list of returning officers initially published by the electoral body in late April caused an uproar with both Nasa and some members of the IEBC secretariat questioning its composition.

Both the opposition and a section of IEBC staff questioned the motive behind some proposed staff changes and movements that the commission’s chief executive Ezra Chiloba had developed “with the aim of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in our operations.” The protests led to the suspension of the list over claims of interference by a section of the commissioners. The commission has since disowned the list which had proposed the redeployment of 47 constituency election managers and 290 constituency election officers by May 4.

RETURNING OFFICERS

These were the people who were to be later gazetted as returning officers for county and constituency elections respectively.

“The decision is in line with the common understanding that before elections, all constituency election coordinators were to be moved to new stations to serve as returning officers,” Mr Chiloba’s letter on the staff changes and movements of April 27 stated.

Mr Chiloba at the time defended the list saying: “The commission has its timelines that must be observed. This includes gazetting the returning officers and their deployment. The final decision on the deployment will be made public through a Gazette notice as required by law.”

He added: “The law is also clear on the relationship between the commission and secretariat. Everything that is to be done is being done to ensure we have a free and fair election. The commission understands fully well what the law states regarding the role and relationship between commission and secretariat, and we are consistently following that definition.”

CONTRADICTED OFFICIAL

At an internal meeting of the commissioners and the secretariat, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati contradicted Mr Chiloba before the staff, many of whom were to be affected by the proposed movements and transfers.

“We agreed that all transfers should have a human face and should be done at the plenary. Do these transfers have a human face. I am therefore cancelling all the transfers?” Mr Chebukati reportedly said.

He informed the staff that the commission will prepare a new report.

At the time, Nasa had maintained that the changes were part of a plot by IEBC to rig the polls.

'THE CRITERIA'

“We in Nasa are unable to discern the criteria and logic of IEBC posting members of only one community as returning officers to serve in certain electoral areas, especially the western region,” said Nasa’s chief campaign manager and Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi.

But Mr Chiloba disputed the narrative, saying it was guided by the principle that returning officers should not serve in their home areas.

“However, we ensured that we don’t take people too far from their homes,” Mr Chiloba said.

In the 32 constituencies of the four counties in western Kenya, 15 of the 32 returning officers were from the Rift Valley. In the deployment, no officer, the IEBC said, was posted to the constituency or county where they served before, or their home constituency or county.