Friday, September 10, 2010

Kenya electoral staff trained ahead of polls

BY SIMON NDONG'A

IIEC Chairman Issack Hassan and Makadara RO/File Photo

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 10 - The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) is conducting training for 78 election staff who will in turn educate all officials involved in the forthcoming by-elections in Juja, Starehe and Makadara constituencies.

IIEC Commissioner Winnie Guchu said the trainees would be coached on the respective roles and responsibilities of election officials during the whole exercise.

"We will train them on the roles of Returning Officers, Presiding Officers, their deputies and the polling clerks," she explained adding that accurate transmission of results will be a key component during the exercise.

"We are also training them to transmit results using the telephone and we will be introducing a new component of queuing clerks so that we are able to manage long queues especially in the morning when many people turn up to vote," she said.

The 78 trainees will in turn conduct training for the Returning Officers, Presiding Officers and polling clerks in each of the three constituencies that are to hold by-elections on September 20. The second-level training is to be conducted from next Monday.

"We are also going to familiarise them with all the tools that will be used during the by-elections, especially the use of laptops and mobile phones for transmission of results and also the use of technical, administrative and legislative forms that must be filled," she added.

"By the end of the exercise, they must be very thorough in terms of how to use the election material, equipment they will be provided with and how to fill all the forms especially form 16A and 17A," Ms Guchu said.

Meanwhile, voters in all three constituencies will have their right index finger marked with indelible ink instead of the left one.

This is because some voters still have the ink on their left index finger after casting their ballots during the referendum on the new Constitution last month.

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