Election crisis looms as 11,000 centres lack mobile network coverage
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has urged members of parliament to back the manual transmission of results, which shall be brought before the national assembly through the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
The electoral commission said that 11,000 polling stations lack 3G mobile network coverage for electronic transmission of results in the August polls as required by law.
The Bill, if it becomes law, will not scrap off the live streaming of election results and return to the manual voting system but will have both the live-streaming and manual voting system run concurrently.
According to Chrispin Owiye, the Director of Legal Service, the Bill shall not amend section 44 of the Election Act Integrated Elections Management System for voter registration, identification and results’ transmission.
Owiye, before the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, assured Kenyans that the changes, if effected, shall not interfere with IEBC’s mission of providing a free and fair election.
“All stakeholders must be allowed to have access to the election results, including witnessing the tallying, declaration of the results,” he explained.
IEBC clarified that the Bill proposes a complementary mechanism for result transmission to address instances where transmission of results is not possible because of poor internet coverage.
