IEBC enlists 548,188 new voters in the last 14 days
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has today entered the last week of the second Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) managing to register 548,188 new voters out of a target of to register 2,987,138.
The Commission received 130,320 requests for transfer and 989 applications for change of particulars.
Through a statement, the commission’s chairman Wafula Chebukati highlighted the Commission will extend registration in Canada and UAE by the number of days lost to ensure Kenyans residing in the two countries are accorded 15 days to register as voters.
“In Canada the exercise will kick off on 1st February 2022 at the Kenya High Commission in Ottawa, Kenya Honorary Consulate in Toronto and Kenya Honorary Consulate in Vancouver,” he said.
The exercise took place in institutions of higher learning, Huduma centres countrywide and Diaspora countries, namely United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Qatar, Germany, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
In Kenya, the exercise will end on 6th February 2022, while in the Diaspora it will close on the 15th day of the commencement date of the respective country.
Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Canada, the Commission has today commenced ECVR in UAE at the Kenya Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Kenya Consulate in Dubai.
The second round was launched on January 17 and will run until February 6.
Although it had ruled out a second round of voter registration, IEBC decided to do so after receiving money from the Treasury for the exercise.
The first round, which ran from October 4 to November 2, 2021, only registered 760,000 out of a target of 4.5 million eligible voters. This was only a 17 per cent success rate.
The electoral body also deployed more kits to learning institutions and at least three Biometric Voter Registration kits per ward to hit the target to allow a seamless process.
Chebukati said they will go out of their way to ensure at least 25 million voters participate in the August 9 polls.
Additionally, he announced that they will allow Kenyans who want to transfer polling stations or change their particulars to do so during the period.
The commission failed to reach the six million targets during the first phase of the exercise last year only 1.52 million eligible Kenyans registered as new voters.
Apathy and lack of national identity (ID) cards, especially among the youths and poor civic education were blamed for the low turnout.
