The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has stated that the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2022 does not eliminate live election results transmission, contrary to common assumption.
Speaking at a Nairobi hotel during a workshop on preparedness for elections commissioner Abdi Guliye assured election results handling would remain transparent and secure.
“Results as announced at the polling station are final. The amendment, which has generated debate, seeks to create a result path for the form,” said Guliye.
According to the IEBC, the proposed revisions are merely intended to provide a means for the statutory results form at the polling station to be physically transferred to the national counting centre.
He further stated the new law creates a complementary mechanism in areas where live dissemination of polls is impossible.
It also stipulates that election results are contained in the election results declaration form with IEBC verifying the results by comparing the original physical forms as transmitted from polling stations.
“You have taken the image of the form and the actual form is left with the presiding officer, so what is the fate of this form? It is very simple like that,” he explained.
Guliye stated that the results announced at voting stations are final.
The results are subsequently entered into statutory forms, according to him, in a procedure that is available to agents, spectators, and the media.
The presiding officer is responsible for transmitting the results from the polling place to the constituency, and then to the national tallying centre, once the necessary documents have been signed.
“The digital form has already been transmitted to the national tallying centre. The presiding officer will be required to take that form to the constituency tallying centre. In a constituency, we have many tallying centres and presiding officers so each of them is expected to take that physical form to the constituency tallying centre where it would be received by the returning officer,” he added.
He explained that the Constituency Returning Officer (CRO) will then generate a form that contains a summary tally of the results contained in each polling station results form.
The CRO will be expected to not only transmit the created form digitally, but also to collect the presiding officer’s result form from the constituency and transport it to the national tallying centre with the original form.
“The only thing the Commission has said is that there will be no digital tally owing to complaints raised in 2017 but physically verified results will be relayed,” he added.
The IEBC refuted claims earlier this month that the Bill aims to eliminate live streaming of poll results, prohibit live broadcast of poll results, and restore the voting system to manual voter identification and poll result transmission.
