Group to collect data on conduct of polls

By NATION REPORTER  ( email the author)

Posted  Monday, February 18  2013 at  20:58

In Summary

• Elog, which brings together religious, civil society and other NGOs, said it would use this system — called Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) — as a research tool.

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A local election observer will send 7,000 data collectors to selected poll centres around the country on March 4.

The move is aimed at determining the quality of the polls and the credibility of the results announced by the electoral commission, the Elections Observation Group (Elog) said on Monday.

Elog steering committee member Peter Alingo told reporters in Nairobi that the observers would be “non-partisan” and would be required to act within the law in the collection of information.

“We will not ask for the opinions of voters. This will be based on direct observations at polling stations,” Mr Alingo said.

“This (information) will help clear uncertainties by providing validation to the results given by the IEBC.”

Elog, which brings together religious, civil society and other NGOs, said it would use this system — called Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) — as a research tool.

The poll centres would be picked randomly across all regions.

The observers would examine the voting behaviour, including the security of voters at polling stations, the time that each voter takes in a polling booth, the professionalism of polling clerks as well as the opening and closing of polling stations.

They would also check whether the electoral commission has delivered all the required material, behaviour of party agents, turnout of voters and the results announced by the polling officials at the station.

Elog said the data collectors would be required to send updates via mobile phone to a data centre in Nairobi where the group can either warn of election malpractices or give suggestions on how to correct voting irregularities.