Azimio-one Kenya Alliance submitted to the electoral agency five demands, including a full list of voters by polling place and the ID numbers used for registration prior to today’s meeting.
Through their lawyer Paul Mwangi, the coalition stated that they had written to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) requesting access to the complete list of the voters registration that KPMG had inspected.
They also requested that Wafula Chebukati to release a list of every voting place in the nation along with its location.
They further asked for information on all election technologies to be deployed, such as the KIEMS kit and the polling station networks’ connectivity.
“In this election, there is a very slow response at answering questions that have been asked, unlike previous elections. The chairman last time indicated that they had identified people who had tried to sabotage the system and he promised that he will reveal who they were and what action was taken against them,” stated Mwangi.
The Raila-led camp also demands a thorough report on the measures taken against three election officials who were under investigation for improperly transferring voters.
Mwangi emphasized the need for the electoral commission to reassure all candidates of the fairness of the voting process.
“The problem is that if you sabotage the technology on that day it means that some polling stations will not operate because they will not have the voters register,” he said.
Azimio additionally questioned the lack of information provided to presidential candidates on the printer of the ballots while the team urged the electoral authority to arrange a tour of the printing facility for the candidates.
According to Raila’s staff, the electoral authority should take precautions to make sure that all election materials are securely stored to avoid situations in which some candidates will have access to the ballots before others.
In the meeting with Chebukati today, Raila promised to bring up some of the concerns highlighted by the coalition.
The four are Raila, David Mwaure Waihiga (Roots Party), and Deputy President William Ruto (Kenya Kwanza Alliance) (Agano Party).
Chebukati limited the number of individuals the candidates to be accompanied by to five in anticipation of the political fervor that would certainly be generated during the meeting.
The meeting today takes place at a time when Raila, Ruto, and their friends appear to be playing from the same playbook on a number of topics, including the requirement that the IEBC submit information on the printing of more than 120 million voting papers.
The phase-out of the physical voter register in favour of the biometric system has also been agreed upon by the two coalitions.
Voting paper printing has been the topic of political controversy in prior elections, with suggestions that it is possible to print too many to rig the results.
The electoral agency’s unilateral move to favour the biometric voter register without being supplemented by a physical one has also drawn criticism from both political parties.
They have also questioned how the IEBC will send results from places where 3G and 4G networks are not available.
