A divided electoral agency confirms the fears of opaqueness in the way the Independent Electoral Commission operates.
It's not good enough to know that the number of votes cast was inflated to the advantage of one party in the supposedly democratic contest. It is not good enough to know the initially reported physical voter turnout soared after the close of polling stations.
The reported inflation of votes for one candidate, and an infraction for another, were intended to serve the interests of a party that sought to win at any cost. Sabotage of the democratic process came easily, and with defiled consciences, to the beneficiaries of the fraud.
Not even the potential for inciting national insecurity would restrain the mischief-makers. The danger of triggering post-election violence was averted, but the threat to democracy, and fear of sabotage of future elections, still remain.
Electoral crimes have not been sufficiently punished. The electoral agency forced the country into two costly presidential elections in 2017. It got away with the mess.
It is also not enough for voters to know there were attempts to hack the IEBC servers. Or even that parallel vote-tallying centres of media houses were invaded.
The disinformation therefrom was part of the rigging process. The ultimate goal was to create an impression of a win, even if was based on fraudulent evidence.
The anomalies in ballot papers that caused the postponement of gubernatorial elections in Mombasa and Kakamega counties don't surprise. The anomalies affected the strongholds of one party in the contest.
Some of these anomalies are drawn from the Nyayo versions of the 1992 and 1997 elections. Confusion was often orchestrated to suppress the vote in opposition strongholds. Ballot boxes that should have been transported to Ndhiwa in Homa Bay, would land in Kisauni, Mombasa.
Those meant for Bondo, Siaya, would be ferried to Lagdera in Garissa. In 2007, a presidential candidate's name was missing from the ballot. Such deliberate mistakes cloud the just-concluded election. The IEBC's trust deficit got higher with the just-concluded general election.
Kakamega and Mombasa, the most notorious cases of mistakes in this election fraud cycle, are home turfs of ODM deputy leaders Hassan Joho and Wycliffe Oparanya. The outgoing governors were passionate campaigners of the Azimio presidential ticket.
The anomalies were calculated to suppress the presidential vote. The Azimio presidential candidate was the preferred choice of voters in the two counties.
Behind these criminal and negligent actions, lurk suspects whose identities are yet to be made public. Yet none of these acts of sabotage should surprise.
They were calibrated to benefit a party and an individual for whom winning was a matter of life and death. The electoral agency always found a defender, even when questions of transparency were raised.
The furore over manual voter identification roll was one such case. Where electoral technologies failed, the manual register was the recourse.
The logic of printing superfluous Form 34A for recording polling station votes for presidential candidates is yet to be explained. The frame will be found to have been insidious when the conduct of the 2022 presidential election is audited.
The defences were leading to the mess that kept the country waiting for six days for the declaration of presidential election results. That the IEBC has seven days, which is the constitutionally defined time, to declare presidential election results does not rationalise the divisive and costly delay.
The electoral agency and its accomplices should take responsibility for these. The infiltration of IEBC was a matter of public record long before the August 9 Ballot Day.
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