First of all, the Kriegler Report is very clear that six months to the polls, you cannot amend election laws.
The report was written by an international commission of enquiry that looked into all aspects of the disputed 2007 general elections with particular emphasis on the presidential election.
Having said that, however, we currently have a Bill that seeks to amend election laws and it seems that we just have to deal with matters as they are.
Live transmission is a must because of a simple reason — it enhances accountability in the electoral process.
Manual transmission can be faced with a lot of challenges.
You can remember what happened in 2007 elections. Some returning officers disappeared when they were expected to give the results.
Their whereabouts became unknown and they could not be reached on the phone. So, many things stalled because of this.
To avoid such a situation, live transmission of results would be the way to go.
We want not just the live outcomes but live results of the biometrics as well.
Once the forms have been filled, they should be scanned and forwarded to the national tallying centre.
With this, we will see accountability in the entire process enhanced and the electoral body will be able to deliver on its mandate effectively.
I, however, want to point out that the live results should only be from the IEBC and not any other organisation or institution.
The IEBC is the only body mandated by the Constitution to carry out elections and not any other organisation.
We know some leaders have been saying amendments seeking to pave the way for both manual and electronic transmission of presidential results in the August 9 general election would be a recipe for chaos.
We must also take note that among the provisions is that returning officers managing the election would have to travel to Nairobi with the results after transmitting the same electronically.
We also know that IEBC has been pushing for a complementary mechanism for results transmission to address instances where transmission of results is not possible because of poor network coverage.
Electoral expert spoke to the Star
(Edited by V. Graham)
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