IEBC to airlift ballot papers to 5 counties due to security concerns

The electoral commission has announced that it will airlift ballot papers to Wajir, Garissa, Mandera, Lamu and Turkana due to security and weather concerns.

However, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said it will delay distribution of presidential election materials to only go out three days to the polls.

By last evening, IEBC said it had distributed 60 per cent of all ballot papers received, covering 35 counties and 216 constituencies.

Commissioner Francis Wanderi said the IEBC has not yet distributed any presidential materials but the exercise will be undertaken in two days between August 5 and 6, being the last day for the arrival of the poll materials to the constituency distribution centres before onward transmission to the polling stations. “We have distributed a total of 2,053 pallets including 364 pallets for governors ballot papers, 368 pallets for Senate, 410 pallets for woman reps, 439 for MPs and 472 pallets for MCAs.”

Last batch

He said the last batch of the presidential materials was to arrive last evening at 5pm.

“As of now, we have not distributed any presidential ballot papers as we are still receiving them. The last batch will arrive this evening. We received about 916 pallets and we will receive another plane-load of pallets this evening,” said Mr Wanderi during a briefing at IEBC’s Industrial Area warehouse.

He said Posta Corporation has been contracted to distribute all the election materials, with at least Sh700 million set to be spent for the exercise.

He added that 90 per cent of non-strategic materials have already been distributed to various constituencies.

He gave assurance that IEBC will pin a copy of form 34A at the entrances of all the 46,229 polling stations.

IEBC Director of Voter Education Joyce Ekuam reminded voters to only use a single mark on each of the ballot papers they will be given. “If a voter uses more than one mark on a ballot paper, it will be a rejected ballot and they will have wasted their time,” said Ms Ekuam.

Chebukati’s appeal

Early Wednesday, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati urged more than 14,000 unsuccessful candidates in the August 9 elections not to resort to violence after losing.

He said there are over 16,000 candidates in the August 9 polls, competing for only 1,882 seats.

“We ask the Church to encourage them to follow the available dispute resolution mechanisms or petitions as opposed to inciting the citizenry to violence or other forms of violence,” he said.