Majority Leader Aden Duale joins CORD in asking IEBC to stop voter registration

National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale

Jubilee has now joined CORD in asking the electoral commission to suspend voter registration.

The coalitions have faulted the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for committing few equipment and personnel in the exercise expected to run for a month.

Yesterday, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale said he has asked IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan to suspend the exercise until they get more resources.

“As Jubilee we have a serious issue with the kits. I have spoken to the IEBC chairman, and I have told him he must tell the country what criteria he is using to distribute the biometric voter registration kits across the country. He must also tell us why he is recruiting very lean staff,” said Mr Duale in an interview with The Standard on Sunday.

CORD had complained that it has not got a response from the electoral commission despite writing three letters to request for a meeting to discuss deployment of voter registration kits.

ODM national chairman John Mbadi (Suba) said CORD was keen to have the voter registration suspended until there was enough money.

And Duale said he raised the alarm after realising his Garissa Township Constituency was affected, including at least 70 per cent of the Jubilee strongholds.

“He has employed only seven clerks in my constituency and I have told him that is unacceptable. He should tell us why he has given some wards more registration clerks and others less. That is one of the reasons that will create a very bad perception to the voters and political parties. We don’t want people to say that fair play is not taking place,” said Duale.

The Majority Leader said Jubilee will use parliamentary majority to ensure IEBC gets the money to buy equipment and employ more personnel to register voters.

“Winning an election begins with the voter registration,” he said.

Duale added that the MPs will work with the National Treasury to negotiate the commission’s request for a substantial portion of the Sh45 billion budget for the 2017 polls allocated in the current financial year.

“The Jubilee government and Parliament will do whatever it takes to ensure that the IEBC conducts free and fair elections. We will make sure that in the next financial year, the IEBC gets all the money required for the preparation of the General Election next year. I can speak for government and I can speak for Parliament that we will do whatever it takes to make sure IEBC gets all the resources it requires for them to conduct free and fair General Election,” he said.

Mr Mbadi said IEBC should not simply say that just because the process was legal, then they will go ahead with it.

“It is one thing to do a legal process and another thing to do a credible process. It will be total misuse of resources if they do not wait to get more money so that they do proper planning,” he said.

He added: “If there was goodwill from the IEBC, there will be no reason why they should not engage the Justice and Legal Affairs to push for more money. They should suspend the process, lobby for money.”

The Commission has advertised for 2,878 voter registration assistants and will deploy an average of two BVR kits per ward. IEBC targets to register four million new voters from February 15 to March 15.