By Emmanuel Oduor
Media reports suggest that the proposed Elections (Amendment) Bill 2022 allegedly seeks to scrap, in its totality, the electronic transmission of election results and revert the country back to the manual system,
Background
Just like any other game, the political game is not without rules and those rules that will guide the country through this intense political period are the; Electoral Code of Conduct, the Elections Offences Act and the Elections Act with the latter being the subject of debate currently.
On February 3, 2021, the Leader of the Majority Party in the National Assembly, Amos Kimunya tabled before the House for first reading the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2022. This proposed Bill seeks to amend certain sections of the principal Act, the Elections Act, 2011 and it is the proposed amendments to Section 39 of the principal Act that became subject to public discussion.
Verification
Politicians, especially those allied to the Kenya Kwanza Coalition accused President Uhuru Kenyatta and his government of engineering a change in law close to the polls. This is not a true position as far as the Bill is concerned.
The Bill is not the property of the government or any of the political parties, rather it originated from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) as explained here by the House Majority Whip Emmanuel Wangwe. Amos Kimunya only introduced the Bill because IEBC does not have a representative in Parliament and it is, therefore, the duty of the Leader of the Majority Party to introduce it into the House on behalf of the Commission.
The second misrepresentation of facts is in regards to the issue of returning to manual transmission of results.
Clause 20 of the proposed Bill seeks to amend section 39 of the principal Act in order to provide clarity on the role of the Presiding Officers on how images of forms 34A and 34B will be transmitted electronically and physically delivered to the national tallying centre. The amendment makes it mandatory for the forms to be sent both electronically and be physically delivered to the national tallying centre and it is not therefore at the discretion of the Presiding Officer and the Constituency Returning Officer to do either, he must do both.
At the national tallying centre, the Commission shall also undertake a verification exercise to ascertain that the electronically sent results and the physical results tally before a declaration is made.
IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati further issued a statement dismissing claims that the Bill seeks to get rid of electronic transmission of results as erroneous.
“The Bill does not in any way propose amendment to Section 44 of the Elections Act that provides for the deployment of an Integrated Elections Management System for voter registration, voter identification and results transmission. Instead, it proposes a complementary mechanism for result transmission to address instances where transmission of results is not possible owing to lack of 3G network which is the minimum standard required for transmission of results Form,” the statement reads in part.
Press Release – Misrepresentation by Media on Elections Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022https://t.co/f9DmALWbJF pic.twitter.com/GP8ZeyYKuf
— IEBC (@IEBCKenya) February 4, 2022
These amendments were informed by the decision of the High Court in Constitution Petition No. 207 of 2016 where the three-judge bench determined that sections 39(1C) (a), 39(1D), 39(1E), 39(1F) and 39(1G) were unconstitutional, null and void. It is, therefore, inconceivable to expect the country to go into an election with an Act whose sections have been impugned by a court of competent jurisdiction.
To this extent, it is clear that the proposed amendments do not in any way scrap electronic transmission or live streaming of election results. Instead, it compliments it with physical delivery of prescribed forms 34As and 34B.
Verdict
Claims that the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2022 seeks to scrap off electronic transmission of results are FALSE.
Add comment