Polls team starts moving ballot papers to regional centres

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission has started moving electoral materials to regional offices in readiness for the referendum.

The commission is making arrangements for security, transport, observation and transportation of materials to all the 26,000 polling centres countrywide.

On Tuesday, commissioners expressed confidence that the August 4 referendum would go on as planned and without any hitches.

Commissioners Winnie Nguchu, Yusuf Nzibo, Douglas Mwashigadi, Tiyah Galgalo and Hamara Adan said all the necessary materials and personnel required for the referendum were in place.

Speaking to the Daily Nation in Nairobi, the commissioners said that they were currently training more than 200,000 personnel including 25,000 police officers who will conduct the referendum.

The commission has hired 210 returning officers, 210 deputy returning officers, 29,000 presiding officers and 116,000 electoral clerks. Up to 65,000 police officers will be deployed to maintain security.

The commission is also configuring the electronic system that will see relaying of live results from the polling centres to the constituency and national tally centres.

On Wednesday, Ms Guchu said, the clerks who will handle the electronic transfer of data will be in Nairobi for training.

“We have already procured everything that we need and all materials are being packaged ready for dispatching to the various polling areas,” said Ms Adan.

The materials which include ballot papers, voter registers and transparent ballot boxes are sent to the regional offices from where they are re-packaged and sent to the constituencies before being released to the polling centres.

Ms Guchu said persons who will package the materials will also be trained.

“This is a very sensitive area and therefore those handling it must be trained properly,” said Ms Guchu.

Other persons being trained include agents of the seven registered referendum committees for the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ camps.

Each of the committees has selected eight agents in every constituency who will in turn train the agents who will be in all polling centres.

The IIEC also noted that they were using the lessons learnt from the by-elections in Matuga and Shinyalu to create a mechanism of dealing with any challenges that may arise.