IEBC announces major changes days after elections

The 2022 general election will have major changes in which the commission is contemplating replacing the current manual cum electronic voting system to a full electronic system. The new system will enhance quick voting, ease tallying and results transmission tamper-proof and free from third-party interference.

The new turn, the commission has said, will also help cut down the costs incurred in the administration and management of voting exercise. The Commission in the recent past has been on a sharp focus after using over Sh2.5 billion to print ballot papers in the controversial Al Ghurair Printing & Publishing tender.

The commission has already hinted that it has plans to send a strong IEBC delegation to India and Brazil. The two countries are successfully using a purely electronic system.

It is understood that the commission aims at either crafting a partnership or coming up with a hybrid solution that the commission can use in 2022, to mitigate the key flaws that were seen in the just concluded polls.

“IEBC might consider electronic voting in 2022, like India and Brazil. This will save the cost of ballot papers, no possible errors, auto tallying and get rid of vendor wars and physical logistical problems,” Mr Wafula told a media briefing breakfast in the capital.

Currently, IEBC is at the centre of the highly protracted election results in which Mr Kenyatta was declared the winner of the Tuesday last week polls, which the opposition team led by Raila Odinga has vowed to contest in court. Odinga has up to midnight today (Friday 18) to file the petition.

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As at Thursday this week, over seven days after the polls, the commission is still piecing together the crucial forms 34A, 34B and 34C which are used to tally the presidential elections at constituency and national levels respectively.

The new challenge that will accompany the fully-electronic system, however, is the meager 3G network coverage in the country. Many parts of the country are not covered by the broadband.

However, when put to use, the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) would as well bring to end the era of Forms 34A and 34B that have turned out to be problematic.