NAIROBI; KENYA: Electoral officials have provided a blow-by-blow account of the March 4 presidential election in response to petitions claiming massive fraud.
This follows a separate filing to the Supreme Court earlier this week by the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in his capacity as Returning Officer in the presidential election.
They dismiss allegations of irregularities and say IEBC declared Jubilee alliance candidate Uhuru Kenyatta as President-elect “properly and constitutionally”. IEBC says the petition filed on behalf of CORD’s candidate, Raila Odinga, challenging the outcome of the elections is riddled with “misrepresentations” and “misconceptions” about the voters’ register, the tallying process and the legal framework guiding the election.
The 26-page response urges the Supreme Court to reject all petitions challenging the outcome arguing:
• CORD’s challenge over the accuracy of the final voter register is based on incorrect provisional figures;
• Some of the alleged discrepancies are merely related to special sections that all parties were aware of;
• The electronic voter identification and results transmission were meant for transparency only, not to substitute manual process required by law;
• The unexpected and unplanned failure of the two electronic systems had no bearing on the final outcome;
• Details on Forms 36 (constituency totals) used in the manual tally were not manipulated and contain no grave errors as alleged;
• None of the 291 constituencies reported had vote totals greater than the number of registered voters.
The electoral body’s legal team, however, conceded the poll had numerous challenges and said this was due to the tight timelines they were forced to work under.
IEBC informed the court it had been in existence for just 18 months, during which time it “completed activities that require an election cycle of five years”. The team also pointed out that the March 4 election was Kenya’s largest and most complex ever, with an 86 per cent turnout that presented logistical issues.
“The election required the hiring, training, deployment and supervision of over 300,000 temporary personnel in addition to IEBC staff, and acquisition of unparalleled quantities of equipment,” their response reads.
The challenges encountered, electoral officials say, were resolved with pragmatic solutions in accordance with the law. Political party officials, they add, agreed to many of the solutions, including the manual tallying after the provisional results system ran into trouble.
As a result, they say, there are no grounds for setting aside the outcome of the election. They further contend the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction for such a drastic course of action.
Through campaign manager Eliud Owalo, Raila has sought declarations that, when broadly interpreted, would lead to invalidation of the entireGeneral Election. He claims he won the elections but the victory was stolen from him. He wants voter registration declared flawed, the presidential elections invalidated and IEBC held to have committed electoral offences.
“There is no lawful basis whatsoever advanced by the petitioner that would warrant either the setting aside the results as announced or (rejecting) the electoral process as a whole,” IEBC responds through lawyers Mohamed Nyaoga and Paul Nyamodi. The commission also dismisses Raila’s references to the disputed 2007 election in his petition, saying the facts and legal framework are different.
“The only common denominator is the petitioner, who has disputed both results,” IEBC says. Initial reports by various observers, it adds, gave this year’s polls a clean bill of health.
CORD’s allegations
IEBC denies CORD’s allegations that it “abandoned” the voter identification process or that the system was “poorly selected, implemented and designed to fail”. Details on the failure of electronic systems, IEBC says, are provided in an affidavit prepared by Mr Dismas Ong’ondi, its Director of Information Technology. These systems, it adds, were only employed to improve the efficiency and transparency of the electoral process.
The commission maintains it certified 14,352,545 validly registered voters on February 18. This followed countrywide registration from November 17 to December 18 last year.
IEBC says an additional Special Register had 31,318 people who were validly registered but did not have their biometric details captured due to age, disability or the nature of their work. Political parties were informed about this group in a section called Register Without Biometrics, which was gazetted alongside the main one on February 18.
The figure of 14,267,572 voters quoted in the petition, it says, was a provisional figure from an early register given to political parties to help them conduct their nominations. The final register opened to the public for inspection and verification between January 14 and 27 this year included adjustments that add up to the final figure. Two other sections on the register — exceptions and duplications — were not used during the poll.
On tallying, IEBC says it had a two-step audit involving ten regional teams and a verification team to countercheck their findings. Returning Officers from all 291 constituencies (including the Diaspora) were required to personally and physically deliver results at the National Tallying Centre. Signed Forms 36 were given to party agents in the boardroom at Bomas who were allowed 20 minutes to countercheck them with their tallies.
The commission denies any irregularities or malpractices in the tallying process.
Source:standardmedia.co.ke
