When issues of poll errors came up, what did you think first? Rigging? Well, that could not really be the cause of the errors. The Wafula Chebukati-led IEBC has come out clear on the errors, revealing that they came up as a result of fatigue of poll officials.
Conducting of six elections in one day is said to have affected the counting and tallying processes, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said.
“These processes were reported to be long,” the Post Election Evaluation report said, opening the debate on whether to have elections scattered.
Unpreparedness of the commission towards the 2017 elections was as a result of late disbursement of the money from the Treasury to the commission. “Financing of elections is not aligned to electoral cycle. The build of electoral funding is done during the final year of the electoral cycle. This affects activities that come early in the electoral cycle,” the report launched yesterday reads.
The disbursement of voter education funds was done too close to the polling day hence affecting provision of voter education, legal reforms, voter registration, nominations and election campaigns.
Amendment of election laws close to election and court battles impacted negatively on implementation of activities of the commission.
“For instance the review and customization of voter education materials to the amended laws delayed the commencements of voter education. Additionally protracted disputes arising from party primaries affected the candidate registration process and ballot paper production,” the report reads calling for changes of laws two years before elections.
Despite the challenges IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati hailed the commission for work well done. “Out of 299 petitions only five went through hence there was a 98 per cent accuracy,” Chebukati said.