IEBC CEO Chiloba welcomes joint committee proposals on electoral reforms
What you need to know:
- The IEBC had initiated the discussions that resulted in the Election (Amendment) Bill and the IEBC (Amendment) Bill.
- The report of the committee and the draft Bills were tabled in the Senate and the National Assembly on Thursday.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chief Executive Ezra Chiloba has welcomed the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee on electoral reforms.
Mr Chiloba told journalists in Mombasa that the bulk of the committee’s proposals are in line with the IEBC’s plans on how to handle the next elections and the changes to the laws they had recommended to Parliament.
“I have just read the recommendations of the select committee in the report and I am happy to note that more than 80 per cent of their recommendations are from the IEBC’s election preparation plan,” said Mr Chiloba.
The IEBC had initiated the discussions that resulted in the Election (Amendment) Bill and the IEBC (Amendment) Bill sponsored by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.
The two proposed laws were put on ice to await the end product of the select committee co-chaired by senators Kiraitu Murungi and James Orengo.
The report of the committee and the draft Bills were tabled in the Senate and the National Assembly on Thursday.
The National Assembly could be forced to forgo its September recess as the plan by the main political coalitions is to have a new commission by the end of the month.
Mr Chiloba said before the protests against IEBC and the eventual proposals by the joint committee, the IEBC wanted the changes to the laws on elections finished by June.
He said the commission is of the hope that Parliament will speed up processing of the Bills on electoral reforms as the country looks forward to the next elections.
“Our target is that by November this year, we’ll have sorted out the procurement of the Electronic Voter Identification Devices and the results management system. We know when the ballot papers will be in the country and when the equipment will be brought in,” he said.
The commission this week advertised the international tender for the supply of the 120 million ballot papers it plans to use in August 2017.
Mr Chiloba said the Sh18 billion allocated to the IEBC in the current financial year is adequate to fund the preparations for the next elections.
Apart from the 120 million ballot papers, the IEBC will increase their staff to 300,000 and their vehicle fleet to 35,000 by August next year.
