IEBC makes quick change of mind on ballot paper security revoking ealier directive

Third Way Alliance’s presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot has observed that inconsistency in the decisions made by the electoral commission just two days to the polls day stands a higher chance to kill public confidence in IEBC.

The commission on Saturday declared unstamped ballot papers as inadmissible urging returning officers to validate and notify all presiding officers immediately they come across such ballots cast.

Earlier, on August 3, Ezra Chiloba, the commission’s CEO released a memo directing that ballot papers likely to be found unstamped would still be valid citing the General Election Regulation 77 which enlists reasons for rejection of ballot papers but does not include lack of a stamp as one of the reasons.

The memo on August 3, directed that a ballot paper could not be rejected on the basis that it has not been stamped but it lasted barely 48 hours before the commission changed its stand and revoked it.

In the previous elections, stamping of ballots was a key election procedure but the 2017 amendment to the General Election Regulation, 2012 outlawed the procedure doing away with stamping as validation requirement.

In the earlier notice the commission said the ballot issuance clerks had the mandate to stamp all ballot papers before giving them to a voter for marking and casting.

The memo guided presiding officers to admit unstamped ballots cast in the unlikely event that during counting of cast votes a ballot paper is found without a stamp. The commission held that the unstamped ballot paper remains admissible and valid not to penalize a voter for a mistake they did not commit given that in any case the ballot papers have other security features that can be seen at a glance.

This has since changed after the commission announced having resolved that any ballot paper that will be cast devoid of a stamp shall not be admissible.

When concerns emerged as to why Kenya is paying more than twice the price paid by neighbours for a ballot paper, and many times the cost of printing currency notes, security features stood as a probable superior excuse.

The resolution by the commission means the stamp becomes a supreme security feature on the August 8 polls even as they admit that the amendments to the elections regulations had done away with this requirement.

Interesting directions just within 2 days! Consistency is what builds confidence in an electoral management body #ElectionsKE2017 pic.twitter.com/7u6asGQIAl— #Ekuru4President2017 (@EAukot) August 6, 2017