IEBC buoyant after successful mini-elections

PHOTO | FILE A supporter of Mr Moses Wetang’ula celebrates outside the IEBC tallying centre in Bungoma Town Thursday night as the results trickled in, with the former senator retaining his seat. The successful conduct of recent by-elections has earned praise for the IEBC, a rare development for an institution which came under intense criticism over the presidential election last year. 

In Summary

• Mr Hassan says his team has learnt vital lessons to guide it in future polls
• The nature of the contest between Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta and Cord’s Raila Odinga meant that the outcome was always going to be polarising, especially considering the ethnic mobilisation which went on before the poll.

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By Nation Correspondent
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The successful conduct of recent by-elections has earned praise for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), a rare development for an institution which came under intense criticism over the presidential election last year.

The nature of the contest between Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta and Cord’s Raila Odinga meant that the outcome was always going to be polarising, especially considering the ethnic mobilisation which went on before the poll.

But IEBC officials would not have been prepared for the campaign to disband the team championed by politicians and civil society.

Nine months later, the commission is enjoying a resurgence on the back of the successful by-elections and, more crucially, following the release of the final batch of observer results which concluded that technological challenges which were witnessed during the General Election did not alter the results.

The reports tally with the parallel vote tabulation conducted by the Electoral Observer Group (ELOG) which found that the outcome of the presidential contest reflected the observations of the donor-funded parallel tabulation.

One of those who has benefited from this review of the IEBC’s performance during the General Election is its chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan, who was recently awarded by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) for outstanding achievement in election management and conflict prevention.

After weathering sustained calls for its disbandment, the IEBC has gone on to successfully stage several by-elections across the country.

NO CLAIMS

One of the most striking was the close contest in Nyaribari Chache where the victorious candidate Richard Tongi beat his closest challenger by only 800 votes but the election did not attract any claims of foul play.

In another interesting development, a majority of the repeat elections have yielded the same result as the outcome which was challenged in the courts.

Among the MPs whose election was challenged but retained their seats after the by-election are Stephen Mutinda (Matungulu), Patrick Musimba (Kibwezi West) and Joel Onyancha (Bomachoge). Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula also retained his seat.

Mr Hassan acknowledges that there are things which could have been handled better on March 4.

“This was the first election the IEBC was handling and it was a task on a monumental scale with six elections in one day. We had extremely tight timelines and had to race against time to prepare for the elections in a congested electoral calendar, handle last minute changes to election laws by Parliament, cope with chaotic and shambolic political party primaries and other challenges.”

He says the IEBC learnt key lessons which will be applied in future.

“There is obviously the need to test properly any new technology before deploying it in a General Election. This was a key challenge on March 4. We should also manage public expectations better next time. It is wiser to under promise and over deliver than vice versa,” he observes.

“A more effective communication strategy to explain better the work of the commission and its challenges will also be critical to remove any misconceptions,” he adds.

Mr Hassan says key changes to the electoral laws, most importantly the staggering of the various elections, will yield a more manageable process.

The IEBC chief says the legal framework as it currently stands makes the job of those tasked with managing elections very difficult.

“Apart from staggering the elections in line with international best practice, we have proposed that electoral laws are reviewed to compel political parties to complete their party primaries or nominations three to six months before the General Election and allow the Political Parties Dispute Resolution Tribunal to deal with disputes arising out of Political Party nominations instead of IEBC.