By ISAAC ONGIRI iongiri@ke.nationmedia.com and JOHN NJAGI jnjagi@ke.nationmedia.com ( email the author)
Posted Thursday, February 14 2013 at 00:30
Posted Thursday, February 14 2013 at 00:30
In Summary
- Elaborate preparations will see materials flown to various places and official forms quickly taken to tallying centre
- Aircraft to help reduce time gap between provisional and official results
The electoral commission has hired helicopters to help hasten announcement of official results in the March 4 General Election.
The police helicopters will fly in official results from remote areas.
Whereas preliminary results will be relayed directly to the national tallying centre at Nairobi’s Bomas of Kenya and into millions of homes via television, official results cannot be announced until returning officers submit their forms.
A delay in the announcement of results was one of the reasons for the post-election crisis in 2007/8.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Issack Hassan said the aircraft will also be used to transport both strategic and non-strategic materials to remote areas.
“We have hired some aircraft and choppers to be used in extreme situations just to ensure things go right,” he said.
In a meeting with editors on Monday, IEBC officials said this was part of a strategy to reduce the time gap between the release of provisional and official results.
The first batch of ballot papers is expected in the country early next week.
The March 4 elections will see Kenyans vote for candidates seeking six elective positions.
The poll that has cost billions of shillings to prepare has seen heavy expenditure on technology to facilitate corrective measures proposed by the Justice Johann Kriegler commission that investigated the bungled 2007 presidential elections.
Mr Hassan told the Nation his team was prepared to deliver a model election for other African countries.
“I know that there are many people out there who are still doubting. But I can today promise Kenyans that we are going to succeed in delivering a hitch-less election that is free and fair,” he said.
At the same time, IEBC technicians yesterday intensified efforts to set up the national tallying centre.
The tallying centre will have a media station and a Safaricom mast to enhance network coverage. Airtel Kenya will set up another mast.
Technicians from Safaricom and other contracted companies are working to beat the Monday deadline, when mock tallying of results will be conducted.
“We are waiting for servers, which should arrive by tomorrow for us to be able to transmit data received at the tallying centre,” said an IEBC official, who asked not to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
Police will ensure tight security around Bomas of Kenya, with a perimeter fence to keep away intruders.
The mast will also be ringed with a steel cordon and will be manned by police officers to prevent intruders from interfering with its operations.
IEBC sources said all materials and equipment required for the set up was available and it was just a matter of being brought to the scene and be installed.
The IEBC team has set up a secretariat at Bomas of Kenya to ensure that the set timelines are met.
Ten computers and a similar number of telephones were being set up, with 37 others expected to be set up by Thursday, where IBC clerks from the 47 counties will receive results from every ward and the same displayed on a large screen inside the main auditorium.
The media centre was also being built outside the main auditorium, where journalists can get data from the IEBC server.
Safaricom engineers said the mast was a temporary one and would be brought down after the election, but may be there longer in case Kenyans go for a presidential runoff.
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