New era as MPs use electronic vote in House

  SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTEMAILRATING

MPs in the newly refurbished Chambers during the official opening at Parliament Buildings August 7, 2012. MPs voted for the first time using the electronic voting gadgets that were unveiled in the House three weeks ago August 23, 2012. 

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, August 24  2012 at  14:53

MPs voted for the first time using the electronic voting gadgets that were unveiled in the House three weeks ago.

The vote took place late at night on Thursday as Cabinet Ministers sought to further dilute the integrity threshold prescribed in the Leadership and Integrity Bill.

The lawmakers had extended sittings to midnight in a rush to pass six key Bills before the expiry of the August 27 deadline, which is prescribed in the Constitution.

The divisive issue that pushed the MPs to take the e-vote was on whether State Officers, and other public officials, should be allowed to tender in public entities.

Sitting jointly, two House committees had proposed that the law be amended so that a public officer is not put in a position where a conflict of interest is likely to occur. That proposal had come from the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee, and the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.

“A State officer shall not participate in a tender for the supply of goods or services to a public entity, but the holding of shares by a State officer in a company listed or quoted on a securities exchange shall not be construed as indirect tendering unless the State officer has a controlling or substantial interest in the company,” read the proposal by the committees.

But some MPs thought this was stifling their career growth; while others saw the proposal as something that will ensure corruption in government circles is stopped.

“The biggest problem with corruption in this country is because senior people in government do business with the State. You have to decide, do you want to be a State Officer, or do you want to continue you’re your profession. I am a lawyer, but when in Parliament, you have to do the job of Parliament. Why do you want to be a lawyer and an MP at the same time? For the period that you are a State Officer, forget about your business .Why would you want to be a judge and participate in a tender?” said the chairman of the CIOC, Mr Abdikadir Mohammed.

When the temporary deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso placed the matter to a verbal vote, the shouting match was too-close-to-call. That activated a “division” –which in parliamentary parlance means each of the MPs will vote individually to prove that their side won in the verbal vote.

Share This Story

  

Before the new system, all MPs had to do was to line up and have their names crossed out in a list, depending on which side they wanted to vote. The ‘Ayes’ would go to one corner, to the right of the Speaker’s chair. The ‘noes’ would go to the left. That exercise would take 30 minutes.

So, on Thursday night, it was a first, because, after the “division bell” was rang –to call all those MPs to come to the House within eight minutes—it took the MPs three minutes to vote, and the results were displaced instantly on the huge display screens mounted in the House.

The beauty of the voting system is that you have time allocated to vote, say, three minutes after the question has been put. In that time, an MP can vote ‘yes’, change their mind and vote ‘no’, decide to ‘abstain’, then go back through the whole cycle again. When the clock is stopped, whatever vote the MP could have cast is what will count.

The MPs inserted their cards. The card has a chip with information about the MP: his constituency, party, membership to committees, positions held in other committees and basically any other data that will define the MP. They activated their voting sets, which are attached on the desks right in front of each seat.

With the sets on, all they had to do was to press the ‘+’ sign to vote ‘Yes’; press the ‘_’ sign for the ‘No’ vote; and press a ‘0’ to abstain.

As they pressed what they saw fit, the results displayed on the screen, and even graphs came on the screen, showing the numbers of ‘Noes’, ‘ayes’, and ‘abstentions’. On one corner of the giant screen, the clock kept count of the remaining seconds. When the clock stopped, the voting stations were switched off automatically and the final results were displayed.

The whole thing amazed the MPs, that even, the person presiding over the vote, Dr Joyce Laboso (Sotik) was caught on the microphone marveling at the technology: “This thing is very good. See how the results are displayed in an instant. This thing is very good”.

In the end, those who sided with the two committees won with 75 votes, against 10. Only Mr Mwangi Kiunjuri abstained . Dr Laboso and Mr Peter Kiilu did not vote. Either the gadgets failed or they did not know how to use them.

The results were instantly printed out for the record, and part of it saved in the system. That was a first for the National Assembly.