No hard copy voter register at polling stations, says Chebukati

IEBC has said it will not use a hard copy register of voters at the polling stations in an effort to lock out ghost voters.

In a radical decision that could lock out many voters in the event of technology failure, the IEBC said voters would be strictly identified electronically.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati said the aim is to curb ‘misuse’ of the physical registers as reported in the previous elections.

“The commission made the decision not to use the printed register of voters based on the findings of the post-election evaluation report for the 2017 general election and the fresh presidential elections,” Chebukati said.

“It was established that the use of the printed register of voters provided an avenue for misuse during the voting process. All voters are strictly identified electronically using their captured biometric data."

The IEBC said each Kiems kit would be loaded with a digital register of voters and a QR code would be used to access the voter data for the respective polling station.

Where voters cannot be identified electronically using their biometric data, their biographical information as indicated in their identification documents will be used to ascertain their identity and clear them, IEBC added.

The IEBC was responding to Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s litany of questions to the agency over its preparedness to conduct the polls.

While presenting his nomination papers for clearance on June 5, Raila sought to, among others, know why the commission will not use physical copies of the register to identify voters.

Raila, in his 10-point questions, had raised concerns about the IBEC’s decision to only ban the use of hard copy registers, saying the move would disenfranchise millions of voters.

But the commission said the decision not to physically register is to ensure the credibility of the voting process.

Chebukati explained that Kiems kits will be loaded with digital voters and a QR code will be used to access the voters for the respective polling stations for the purposes of electronic voter identification.

“The Kiems kits have been enabled to work in an offline and standalone mode during identification at the polling station. In addition, the commission will deploy backup kits in each ward to replace any kit that will malfunction," Chebukati said.

In the previous elections, the Commission was under pressure to weed out ‘ghost’ voters.

Chebukati spoke even as election experts and lobbies expressed concerns about the integrity of the technology to be used in the August 9 voting.

The lot said they were dissatisfied with the IEBC’s readiness to comply with the Supreme Court decision on poll technology.

In a joint statement on Sunday, the lobbies raised concerns that ‘despite the heavy investments and public expectations on the use of technology, challenges remain.

The team said a myriad of challenges has been regrettably observed around the tech needs for the President Uhuru Kenyatta succession vote with less than two months to the polls.

“Noting the 2017 Supreme Court of Kenya directions on electronic transmission of results, we are concerned that a number of issues are still pending,” the experts said.

“For example, did the commission undertake any audit of the existing kits before purchasing new ones? If it did, was the report made public."

The joint statement was signed by Transparency International executive director Sheila Masinde, Mule Musau of the Election Observation Group , Caroline Gaita of Mzalendo Trust, Joshua Changwony of Constitution and Reform Education Consortium and Felix Odhiambo of Electoral Law and Governance Institute for Africa.

Top of their concerns was also the looming danger of a slow results transmission system as observed during the recent simulation by the IEBC.

“The system was slow in streaming results from the sampled polling stations, recording a success of 45 per cent. This raises serious concerns given that we are only 58 days to the polls,” the experts said.

They concluded that the simulation performed dismally. “We call upon the IEBC to move with speed and address any gaps and foreseen risks relating to results transmission.”

The experts want the IEBC to share the protocols that will govern the system as well as ‘institutionalise internal controls’ of the same.

IEBC, in relation to this, said it has migrated the poll data from France’s Idemia (initially Ot-Morpho) to the new tech contractor Smartmatic.

“System installation of software is ongoing. As soon as the register of voters is ready, the commission shall deploy ICT personnel to complete the process and duplicate the SD cards with the register of voters for insertion into the Kiems kits," Chebukati said.

The lobbies are also concerned about what they termed as a lack of involvement of electoral stakeholders in the audit of the voter’s register.

They also took issue with the failure by the IEBC to make public the preliminary report issued by audit firm KPMG which revealed there were nearly one million erratic entries.

Also on their radar were the increased cases of public officers using public resources in furthering their political campaigns in violation of the law.

In the same vein, the lot also called out the IEBC for ignoring the report by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission flagging graft suspects seeking elective posts.

“It was expected that the IEBC would follow suit and reject the names forwarded by the EACC,” the experts said.

On the unresolved technology concerns, the lobbyists want the Communications Authority of Kenya to publish the list of the 1,111 polling stations the IEBC said had no 3G and 4G coverage.

“In the spirit of accountability, we call upon the Communications Authority of Kenya to come out and confirm these numbers and explain to the public why is the case,” the lobbyists said.

The team also wants the IEBC to apart from disclosing the polling stations, explains how it will identify the devices at the said polling stations.

The experts further expressed worry about the security preparedness, citing incidents of disturbances in parts of Rift Valley, calling on the concerned to take seriously an NCIC report mapping the hotspots.

“Such an undertaking raises deep concerns on whether our security organs are indeed fully prepared to respond and prevent any possible incidents of violence.”

They demanded that the Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai issues public communication on security preparedness.

The group also condemned the zoning by political parties saying the political class should be reminded that ‘every citizen has the freedom of movement to and from any part of the country.’

Experts further want the IEBC to urgently investigate cases of invalidly transferred voters and action taken against those who would be found culpable.

(Edited by Tabnacha O)