 |
|
Claire Kinyua during preparations
for the IEBC mock elections
in Kajiado North at Watakatifu
Catholic Centre in Ngong, Nairobi
March 21, 2012. The Commission is
laying ground for the next
General Election despite a row
over the poll date.
ANTHONY OMUYA
|
The Independent Electoral
and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is laying ground for the next General Election
despite a row over the poll date.
On Wednesday, the electoral body
conducted a voter education exercise ahead of mock elections planned for
Saturday in Kajiado North and Malindi even as it insisted the March 4, 2013
election date still stands unless Parliament or the courts decides otherwise.
Commissioner Albert Bwire,
however, described the debate as healthy.
The mock elections are meant to test
the six-ballot election and identify any challenges in terms of cost or
logistics so as to find solutions before the actual polling.
Mr Bwire said ballot papers for
the six elective positions will bear different colours to avoid confusion and
ease voting.
He said the mock elections are
meant to help identify gaps to be used as a learning point ahead of the General
Election.
“For instance, we want to
determine how long voting will take, speed of voting and the number of voters
that could be handled in a polling centre. We want to sort out issues of
logistical challenges” Mr Bwire said at Ngong Watakatifu Catholic Centre,
Nairobi.
Mr Bwire said Kajiado North was
chosen for the mock polls because it has both urban and rural voters and that
the IEBC "wants to see how they vote".
Mr Bwire said IEBC targets 30,000
voters in Kajiado North to participate in the exercise.
The mock elections are to be held
in 12 out of 18 wards in Kajiado North. Some 117 polling stations are to be
used.
Mr Bwire said preparations for
Kenyans in the Diaspora to vote in the next elections have been affected by
government delay to put in place regulations for dual citizenship.
“The IEBC and the government are
working on the issue,” Mr Bwire said.
On Saturday, the IEBC set March 4, 2013 as
the date for the next elections, sparking opposition from those who want the
polls held this year.
But Wednesday, Mr Bwire insisted
the decision was arrived at after wide consultation and that it could be
changed if Parliament sets a new date or court rules differently.
Announcing the date, IEBC
chairman Issack Hassan said Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Kibaki
had failed to agree on a date for the elections thus leaving the Commission
with the option of determining the date.
Mr Hassan said the country
needed to know the date of the elections to remove "uncertainty, anxiety
and suspense surrounding this date".
He called on all Kenyans to be
"understanding and support the Commission in delivering peaceful, free,
and credible elections".
IEBC has since advertised for
recruitment of new staff in various fields. The Commission seeks to recruit
professionals in voter registration, voter education, political parties, ICT,
finance, legal services, communications, human Resource, planning, monitoring
and evaluation, procurement, document management and library science.
It will also employ constituency
election coordinators for the 80 newly created constituencies.
No comments:
Post a Comment