IEBC steers clear of push to change elections date

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has said it will not influence Parliament regarding the planned amendments to the Constitution seeking to alter the date of the next polls.

Although the amendments are likely to see the current commissioners kicked out, IEBC acting Chief Executive Officer Betty Nyabuto maintained that Parliament should be allowed to do its work.

“We as a commission would allow Parliament to do its work,” Ms Nyabuto said regarding the amendment sponsored by a CORD MP.

The ultimate effect of the change of the election date, from the second Tuesday in August to the third Monday of December, if approved by Parliament, is that the IEBC commissioners will technically not oversee the next polls.

This is because the term of the current electoral commissioners, including chairman Isaac Hassan, ends in mid-November 2017, which would be one month to the General Election.

According to the IEBC ACT 2011, appointment to the commission is on a fixed term basis, with no reappointment.

“The members of the commission shall be appointed for a single term of six years and shall not be eligible for reappointment,” Section 7 of the Act reads in part.

But speaking yesterday on a breakfast show on a local TV Station, the CEO said the commission had not started contemplating the impact of the amendment and insisted that “they would cross the bridge when they get there”.

The Standard has, however, established that the Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs led by Samuel Chepkong’a was planning a retreat with the commission in August. Among the issues lined up for discussion is the impact of the amendment sponsored by Ugenya MP David Ochieng.

Two-pronged approach

The amendment is believed to be one of the two-pronged approach by CORD to kick out the current commissioners which they have accused of mishandling the March 2013 presidential polls.

Earlier, the coalition had filed a petition in Parliament seeking to disband the current commission.

Yesterday, Nyabuto strongly defended the IEBC from claims that it was conducting secret voter registration and invited all Kenyans to register.

She maintained that IEBC had the mandate to continuously register voters and announced that plans to cascade the exercise to the ward level was underway.

“Those who registered before have their names in the voter register,” she said. “They do not need to register again because this is not fresh registration.”