Kenya’s poll among world’s most expensive

By Standard Digital Reporter

Kenya will have one of the world’s most expensive elections next year if electoral officials get their way.

Standard Digital can report that taxpayers risk paying several times more per voter than people in other countries fork out. This raises serious questions on whether the proposed costs of the next General Election have been inflated.

Officials with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission today rejected Sh17 billion set aside by Treasury for the planned March 4, 2013 poll. Instead, they are demanding Sh35 billion to conduct the first election under the new constitution as well as an anticipated run-off shortly thereafter.

IEBC chairman Mr Isaack Hassan said if they plan the March 4, 2013 elections using the Sh17.5 billion Treasury has allocated the commission in the 2012/2013 budget, they will be forced to extend the election date by two or three days. He said the commission’s budget has a deficit of Sh23 billion and it will cost them at least Sh17.5billion to carry out a re-run in case of a tie in the presidential election.
Hassan and his Chief Executive Officer Mr James Oswago who appeared before the parliamentary Justice and legal Affairs Committee said yesterday they require a minimum of Sh35billion to carry out efficient and credible election next year.
“Election expenses are dictated by the type of an election the country wants to hold. The report of the Johann Kriegler Commission criticized the defunct ECK for allowing dead voters to participate in the 2007 General Election. So a huge chunk of the money were asking the treasury to give us will go to capital investment like purchase of biometric equipment for voters’ registration, acquisition of electronic poll books among other things,” said Hassan.

He said will be the first time the country was voting in six elections in a day, which will take voters longer than the previous polls.

“On average it takes a voter 4 to minutes to complete the six ballot papers. And will take an assisted voter a minimum of 15 minutes to complete the exercise,” said the IEBC chairman.

Oswago, who took the committee through the commission’s vote in the proposed budget, said the Treasury decision to reduce their funding by more than a half has affected the preparation for the upcoming elections.

“Going by the experience we had in 2010 during the referendum, and by-elections we have so far conducted, our estimates are based on the materials consumption and other additions that we need to make. The commission needs additional allocation and here to ask for the same,” said Oswago.

The next general election will involve some 18 million voters, 45,000 polling stations, 350,000 election officials, 100,000 security officers, 338 tallying centers at Constituency, County and National levels and 47 voting points for Diaspora.
Voter are expected to elect a President, 47 Governors, 47 Senators, 47 Women Representatives, 290 MPs and 1, 450 County Assemblers.

The Hassan commission revealed to the committee that other issues that have seen the cost the election shot over the roof was the use of lawyers as commissioners of oath to the polling officials at the cost of Sh500 per person.
“If we hire around 270, 000 officials during the polling day and they are administered with oath at the cost of Sh500 per person, we are talking of about Sh135million, “observed Oswago.

The per-capita cost of the election proposed by IEBC officials would make Kenya’s next election one of the most expensive ever conducted anywhere in the world.

Only countries coming out of a war, where peacekeeping troops were needed to ensure voter safety, have similar or higher costs.

Kenyans already pay more for elections per capita than do most other citizens of the world. If a budget of Sh35 billion were approved, it would work out to some $10 per person and a whopping $23 per voter. According to the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, a group of organisations that track election costs, this is more than was spent on some of the world’s costliest elections. When Nicaragua went to the polls in 1990 in the wake of the brutal Sandinista regime, it spent $11.8 per voter. Angola spent $22 a voter in 1992 in the first elections after a 17-year civil war. In both cases, much of the cost went to peacekeeping operations. Other former war-zones like Liberia ($6.1) and El Salvador ($4.1) managed lower costs in their first post-conflict elections.

The amount approved by Cabinet and allocated by Treasury for Kenya’s 2013 poll, Sh17 billion, would work out to about $10 per elector.

“Low costs of about $1 to $3 per voter are common in the United States and most of Western Europe,” write ACE researchers. “A number of nations around the world also report low costs, including Benin ($1.6), Botswana ($2.7), Ghana ($0.7) and Senegal ($1.2) in Africa.”

Uganda, which has less multi-party electoral experience, averages about $3.7 per voter for their polls. Africa faces about 20 elections this year. Five involve a recent conflict, peace-making efforts or a presidential succession. These are expected to be the most costly. ACE is a collaborative effort between nine organisations, including IDEA, EISA, IFES, UNDESA, UNDP and UNEAD.