Home » IEBC says it is not ready for 2022 General Election

IEBC says it is not ready for 2022 General Election

by Enock Ndayala

IEBC has revealed that it is not well prepared to conduct the 2022 General Election, just a week after the commission unveiled a strategy to make 2022 polls transparent.

Appearing before the Senate Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights on Wednesday, June 23, the commission’s Acting CEO Marjan Marjan said lack of funds and legal hurdles have led to delayed preparations.

The delays, he said, are setting back the poll agency from conducting credible, free and fair election.

“We are told by the National Treasury to clear pending bills by June 30, 2021, but we do not have the funds. We need these resources if we are to deliver a fair, transparent, and credible election,” Marjan said.

IEBC says it is not ready for 2022 General Election
IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati said constraint budget allocation had stalled priority activities which include maintenance and update of election technology, voter registration, education and awareness campaigns that are key to credible elections. Photo: IEBC/Facebook.

IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati said constrained budgetary allocation had stalled priority activities which include maintenance and update of election technology, voter registration, voter education, and awareness campaigns that are key to credible elections.

“The commission, therefore, appeals to National Assembly and National Treasury to provide funds for electoral activities throughout the electoral cycle,” he said.

Chebukati further ruled out the possibility of creating 70 new constituencies as proposed in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Constitution Amendment Bill saying heightened preparations for the 2022 General Election and delimitation of boundaries were competing for limited and scarce resources.

“Due to the complexity of the delimitation process as well as the fact that the commission will be conducting a General Election in 2022, our position is that the final year by which the review of electoral boundaries should have been completed is March 2023,” Chebukati said.

On Tuesday, June 15, the polls agency said it will acquire multiple servers that will be used to transmit election results to the tallying center during next year’s polls.

To enhance transparency, accuracy, verification and promptness in election results management, the commission will deploy multiple servers and provide access to the media, presidential candidates and public portal. This will put to rest the suspicions leveled against the Results Transmission System in the past,” Chebukati said.

More so, National Treasury on Thursday, June 10, tripled the IEBC budget for the financial year 2021/2022 to Ksh 15 up from Ksh 4.6 billion allocated to the commission in the 2020/2021 financial year.

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