Steep Road To Historic Polls

President Mwai Kibaki registers as a voter before launching the nationwide, one-month biometric voter registration exercise in Nairobi on November 19 last year. BELOW: IEBC Chairman Isaack Hassan.

BY KIPNGENO CHERUIYOT
TUESDAY, 1 JANUARY, 2013

The road to the March 4, 2013 General Election has been challenging for the better part of last year with more challenges expected in coming months as prepa-

rations for the historic vote hits the homestretch. From court hurdles to controversial tendering processes, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has sur- mounted many hurdles in its quest to ensure the March

4 vote is credible.
The forthcoming elections are the first to be held under

the new Constitution and a new electoral legal frame- work. It is also the largest Kenya election has seen so far with at least six ballot papers. Two weeks ago, the electoral management body completed the listing of voters and netted 14.3 million people in the exer- cise. This was four million short of the targeted figure of 18 mil-

lion voters.
The completion of the exercise

means preparations proper for the General Election is on high gear. The body is expected to be- gin procurement of ballot papers and other materials key needed for the big day.

Despite the milestones, the body has also had to battle cred- ibility issues over internal wran- gles between the secretariat and the commissioners said to be working at cross purpose. The commission has denied the exist- ence of a rift.

Some of the most protracted cases IEBC battled with were the ones on election date and that of new electoral boundaries which was expected to increase by 80 electoral units.

The High Court had in Janu- ary ruled that the first polls under

the new constitution should be held either within 60 days of the dissolution of the Grand Coali- tion government or within 60 days after the expiry of the term of the current Parliament.

The IEBC then set elections for March 4, 2013 after Presi- dent Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga failed to give any guidance.

However, the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW) and the Caucus for Women’s Leadership appealed against the High Court ruling claiming the judges misinter- preted the Constitution. Despite the appeal, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision.

New constituencies

On boundaries, a five judge Bench retained the 80 new con- stituencies, but ordered amend- ments on the location and names of the proposed County Assembly Wards on the over 125 petition cases challenging the creation of new constituen- cies.

The 125 applications sought to overturn the gazette notice by IEBC regarding the proposed 80 new constituencies and the new electoral boundaries.

Iebc argued it exercised provi- sions of Article 88(4) (a) of the Constitution; which mandates it to draw the boundaries of constituencies and wards and Article 89 of the constitution

which gives lengthy provisions on the delimitation of electoral units.

The petitioners had challeng- ing the constitutionality of the new boundaries saying their Gazettement on March 7, 2012 went against Article 89 (7) of the constitution that states that the new boundaries shall come into effect upon the dissolution of Parliament.

The IEBC was also challenged over the acquisition of the Bio- metric Voter Registration (BVR) kits. It temporary abandoned the idea of electronic registra- tion after the row over the com- pany which should be awarded the contract got murky.

It took the intervention of the Government to ensure the use of electronic voter registra- tion was saved when it signed a government-to-government deal with Canada for the pro- curement of BVR kits.

Though the IEBC has man- aged to steer the processes well towards the March poll, it still has surmount challenges pre- sented to it by strict timelines it has to adhere to.

On October 17, political par- ties submitted their respective rules to the Registrar of Political Parties (RPP) which is expected to be done at least four and a half months before the election.

A key timeline which is cur- rently being awaited is that of January 4 which requires parties

to submit party membership lists. The exercise should be done at least two months before the General Election.

Timelines

This month, parties are required to have completed their party nominations by January 18 and disputes resulting from the nominations resolved by Janu- ary 25.

Independent candidates were expected to cease to belong to any party by December 4. They were required to submit their symbols for approval before yesterday.

The official campaign period ends on March 2, two days be- fore the elections.

Presidential runoff is expected for April 11, which is 30 days af- ter announcement of election results should none of the can- didates garner 50 plus one votes in the first round.

The potential number of can- didates per ballot paper is also expected to complicate matters for IEBC. In the mock election held in Malindi and Kajiado North last year, it was found out that an ordinary Kenyan will need at 10-18 minutes to vote.

The commission is currently undertaking a massive voter education. It hopes to ensure it considerably cut down the very high number of spoilt ballots that might undermine the cred- ibility of the elections.