Why IEBC should just come clean on the final tallies of the March 4 polls

Kenya: It appears the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has been squeezed into a corner by the law and its own housekeeping glitches.

Following a contentious presidential election on March 4, 2013, whose result was contested in the Supreme Court, the electoral body is yet to release the final tallies for the General Election.

This includes those for the National Assembly, Senate and County Assembly Representatives.

There could be any number of reasons for this, but the delay does not augur well for funding of political parties.

The parties are supposed to be funded based on among other things, the number of seats they won at all levels from the counties upwards, and this is supposed to be backed up with the final tallies from the IEBC, the only body mandated by the Constitution to release the figures.

Tally disparities

This is where things get dicey for the commission because well placed and reliable sources inside the electoral body are intimating that things are not as straightforward as the IEBC might want them to appear; that in fact, the disparities in the tallies for, say, the presidential election and the National and county assemblies are, in some instances, wide enough to raise questions.

During the election petitions at the Supreme Court on the outcome of the presidential poll, the IEBC acknowledged there were discrepancies but said these would be ironed out in the final tallies.

This is yet to happen three months after the General Election. There is talk that the IEBC is planning to seek amendments to the electoral law to remove the barrier posed to funding of parties by the need for a reconciled tally of the valid votes cast.

If true then it paints the commission in not-so-flattering terms since it has all along maintained that the discrepancies in Forms 36 from various polling stations was not a significant problem.

There are no two ways about it. The commission must come clean, and quickly, since the longer it waits, the more it loses in the court of public opinion.