Yes, we have problems with vote tallying, says IEBC boss

By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com and ISAAC ONGIRI iongiri@ke.nationmedia.com  ( email the author)

Posted  Wednesday, March 6  2013 at  00:30

In Summary

• Poll team will also adjust percentage of tallies to include spoilt votes, a move likely to cut Cord, Jubilee numbers
• Commission changes gear and prepares to release final official tallies after computer hitch slows provisional numbers

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The electoral team on Tuesday admitted experiencing challenges with its electronic system for transmitting and releasing presidential results.

The commission said it will start releasing official results using the manual forms submitted by constituency returning officers who were on their way to Nairobi by Tuesday.

Mr Isaack Hassan, the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, also announced that his team would adjust percentages displayed on its screens at the Bomas of Kenya to reflect percentages of all votes cast and not just valid votes.

This could lead to a reduction of Jubilee presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and his Cord flagbearer Raila Odinga’s percentages with possibility that none of them will attain the constitutional threshold probably leading to a run off.

The move immediately triggered protests from Jubilee.

Last night, the Jubilee Coalition said it was surprised by what it said was a demand by Cord for the inclusion of invalid votes to be counted along with the valid as part of the overall tally that would define whether a winning  presidential candidate gets the 50 per cent + 1 vote threshold.

“There is no precedent in Kenya or internationally for invalid votes to be counted because, by their very nature, they are invalid. They have never been counted in Kenyan elections before and the IEBC has set strict legal boundaries in place that ensure invalid votes should not be included,” Jubilee said in statement.

The coalition said it had sought clarification on the matter from the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa which concluded that “recounting rejected or invalid votes had no precedent in Africa.’’

Jubilee leaders also asked the electoral commission to urgently rectify “the technical issues”  that were affecting the tallying of votes.  

“We are especially concerned by the slow progress in collecting votes in Nairobi and Nakuru, but are also aware of problems across the country,’’ the team said.

Political parties were thrown into confusion last night after the electoral commission said it would start announcing official results this morning, hours after the system for making provisional results available malfunctioned.

With the screens showing the provisional results frozen since 5.30pm, Mr Hassan acknowledged at 8.30pm that the system was experiencing difficulties.

“We had aimed for 100 per cent perfection but we have experienced problems on the last day,” Mr Hassan said.

“What is true is that there has been a delay in transmission of results from polling stations,” he said. He also sought to dismiss rumours that the commission did not have a back-up of the data or that its systems had crashed.

He said the commission has been in constant communication with the chief agents of the presidential candidates and had briefed them on the problems the system was encountering.

“What brought us here are the official results and they are coming. The official results will be announced starting tomorrow (Wednesday),” Mr Hassan said.

He said the four screens would be adjusted as the figures come in.

But asked by human rights activist Maina Kiai whether the commission had abandoned the electronic tallying of provisional results and  opted for the final tally, Mr Hassan said the electronic system would continue.

“You remember there was a big turnout. The counting and tabulation of the results at the polling stations and then also at the tallying centres has taken long and that’s why we are beginning to see for the first time returning officers arriving late in the night or tomorrow morning,” Mr Hassan said.