Why IEBC has printed ballot papers for only 10 counties

juma chrispinus

October 22, 2017 9:38 AM

The cargo was received on Saturday evening at the JKIA.

Only ballot papers for ten counties were on Saturday night received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the Commission has said.

The Etihad flight ferrying the cargo touched down at 8.30 pm carrying ballot papers for counties far from Nairobi, majorly in the Northern part of Kenya to avoid possible delays, the commission said.

The ballot papers received would be used in the 10 counties and others would be dispatched for voters in the diaspora.

The counties which are set to receive the ballot papers earlier include: Marsabit, Wajir, Isiolo, Mandera, Garissa, Samburu, Turkana and Laikipia.

READ: Details of how IEBC failed to sack Ezra Chiloba

The commission told journalists that the second and more bulky batch will be received on Monday despite the uncertainty of a repeat poll taking place. The cargo will contain ballot papers for 22 counties.

The third and final batch of the consignment for 15 counties will arrive on Tuesday at 10 am.

All tranches of the poll material are accompanied with KIEMS forms and the Polls Results Management (PRM) checklist, a new feature.

The papers have been printed by Dubai-based Al Ghurair Security and Printing Company.

IEBC officials said security features on all the papers have been enhanced to guard against forgeries.

This includes the inclusion of bar-codes on all the ballot papers and the PRM checklists.

The PRM checklists are where Returning Officers will note down the number of agents present, those who signed the results forms and those who failed to sign and why.

The paper material has also been improved to ensure scanning churns out clear copies prior to transmission.

All forms 34A also contain the name of the specific polling station where they are supposed to be used.

This means a form meant for a particular polling station cannot be used to record election results in a different polling station without raising eye-brows.

During its September 1 ruling that nullified the August 8 presidential election, Supreme Court judges noted that some forms 34A were forgeries, were never signed or appeared to be carbon copies of the originals. Some were also found to have no bar codes and water marks.

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