How you’ll get election results — IEBC

IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba. The commission says election results will be declared based on physical forms. FILE PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

How you’ll get election results — IEBC

The electoral commission has announced how Kenyans will get the results of the August 8 General Election.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Tuesday said the outcomes of the poll would be communicated through the media and its website.

FEED

CEO Ezra Chiloba guaranteed local and foreign media managers, editors, producers and technical teams a dedicated feed from the national tallying centre in Nairobi.

“Results will be declared based on physical forms though,” he said when he met the media stakeholders at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.

“We do not expect any variances between the forms and the electronic data.”

He said the commission would not announce any constituency results at the national tallying centre, meaning returning officers will have the final say.

“We don’t know how long it will take before the final result is known,” he said.

338 CENTRES

“But since returning officers don’t have to travel to Nairobi we expect it may be fast.”

According to the CEO, it is not a must for presiding officers to travel to the constituency tallying centre because results can be relayed electronically.

This means the outcome will be delivered to tallying centres quickly, barring a cut or underperformance of the internet connection.

“Returning officers are not obligated to wait for the physical form from the polling station,” he said.

A total of 338 tallying centres with an internet connection across the country, he said, had been set up for the poll.

KIEMS

He said the Kenya Integrated Election Management (KIEMS) that the commission will use would make it hard to rig the poll.

“Given the design of this kit, it will be very difficult to stuff ballots. We’ve built in a system for ballot reconciliation,” he said.

And in case biometric voter identification fails, he said, an elaborate manual procedure would be followed.

“The presiding officer, returning officer and head of ICT will be involved in this decision,” he said, adding that signed forms would also be available on the IEBC website.

OATH

On crowd control, Mr Chiloba said presiding officers have the power to eject people from polling stations.

“They’ve taken an oath and whatever decision they take they must be able to defend,” he said.

“They will be held personally responsible for the decisions they make,” he said.

The National Super Alliance has announced that it will recruit people to guard its votes against theft, a position the commission, Jubilee Party and the government have opposed.

Source: Daily Nation