Dave Opiyo
7 May 2008
Nairobi — Senior officials of the Electoral Commission were Tuesday questioned over the practice of allowing voters to pick, one at a time, three different ballot papers during voting.
The ballots for presidential, parliamentary and civic elections should all be given at once and allow the voter to mark them in the booth, drop them in the respective boxes, then leave the station. Some members of the Kriegler Commission said the system of allowing voters to return three times to pick different ballot papers was open to abuse.
The system, which has been used in all elections, could allow one person to vote three times for presidential, parliamentary or civic candidates.
The issue was raised at a meeting Tuesday between ECK members and the Kriegler commission set up to investigate last year's General Election.
Rig elections
Vice Chair of the Independent Review team, Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud, set the ball rolling saying this procedure could be used to rig the elections in favour of a particular candidate.
She was supported by commissioners Mrs Catherine Muyeka Mumma and Ms Lucy Kambuni.
Justice Aboud, from Tanzania, said that voters could take advantage of this loophole to vote for the candidate of his or her choice more than once.
However, the ECK officials, led by the Commission's Secretary, Mr Suleiman Chege, defended the elections supervision body saying a voter would only be provided with three ballot papers at once if he or she requests so.
According to election rules, other voters may be issued with a ballot paper for each election to avoid confusion.
ECK was also represented by Mrs Jemimah Keli, the senior legal officer and Mr Philip Chepsat, the election's manager at the meeting to enlighten the Kriegler Commission on the country's election process.
ECK commissioners led by the chairman, Mr Samuel Kivuitu, did not attend Tuesday's session.
Present were Mr Justice Johann Kriegler, who chairs the Independent Review Committee, Mr Horacio Boneo from Argentina and Prof Marangu M'Marete from Kenya. Commissioner Francis Aywa did not attend.
The Kriegler commission is expected to assess ECK's efficiency and its capacity to discharge its mandate.
It will also investigate the vote counting and tallying for last year's elections as well as the organisation and structure of the polls.
During Tuesday's three hour session, it emerged that the ECK did not have powers to punish those who flouted the electoral code of conduct.
Despite imposing huge fines on politicians for malpractices like voter bribery or election violence, it was revealed that none of the accused leaders had actually paid their fines.
Fines imposed
Mrs Keli said this was because the code of conduct did not specify the next cause of action should the individual refuses to honour the fines imposed by the commission.
"We are however contemplating filing court cases to compel the said politicians to pay up their fines," said Mrs Keli.
Those fined Sh100,000 for election offences last year included Ikolomani's Dr Bonny Khalwale, Malava's Soita Shitanda and former Mathira MP Nderitu Gachagua.
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