IIEC to electronically register prisoners

CLIP

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission-IIEC will use electronic voter registration in all the 70 prisons in the country with over 50,000 inmates to hasten the registration of prisoners for the August 4 constitutional referendum.

Addressing a press conference at the IIEC offices in Nairobi Friday, IIEC chairman Issack Hassan said the commission would deploy trained officers who would work with the prison department officers to ensure that the exercise from July 2nd is smooth and properly done.

"EVR requires minimal verification compared to the Manual System (OMR). It however requires training of the registration officers on the use of the special kit. We will therefore have to re-deploy some of the already trained clerks from the ongoing verification process in order to commence the registrations in prisons," he said.

Hassan said after the referendum, the commission would have the voters' cards issued to the prisoners destroyed to prevent any future use.

"Each of the registers will form part of the constituency register where the prison is located. Since the ruling expressly emphasised that this registration be limited to the upcoming referendum, these registers will be rendered invalid after the referendum and the voters cards issued will be retrieved after the voting," he added.

On Thursday, the IIEC had said the directive by the Interim Independent Constitutional Dispute Resolution court to register prisoners countrywide within 21 days would pose logistical and operational challenges.

Prisoners have welcomed the ruling which they say would give them a chance to participate in a democratic process.

However there are concern as some of the prisoners do no have Identity Cards which might lock them out of the exercise.

On Wednesday, the Interim Independent Constitutional Dispute Resolution Court (IICDRC), a special court established to hear cases arising from review process, decided that prisoners should be allowed to vote in the referendum.

The ruling was made after a case filed by Shimo La Tewa prisoners in Mombasa, through Kituo Cha Sheria, a human rights lobby, who argued that the constitution bars them from voting in a General Election but not in a referendum.

Under the current law, prisoners do not vote.