IEBC meets Raila, discuss election preparedness

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati. Photo by Edward Kiplimo.

The electoral commission has resorted to direct procurement of ballot papers to ensure that it is ready for the August polls.

The decision to single-source a firm to supply the 120 million ballot papers was disclosed at an impromptu meeting between the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga.

The commission invited Raila yesterday morning to brief him on their preparedness for the August polls and also used the forum to explain their decision.

IEBC chiefs told Raila and his team that they were running out of time and that the only viable option was to identify a suitable firm to supply the election materials worth Sh2.5 billion.

The NASA boss was accompanied by his co-principal, Moses Wetang'ula, NASA head of secretariat Norman Magaya, ODM Secretary-General Agnes Zani, and party executive director Oduor Ong'wen.

Direct procurement

After the one-hour meeting a source who accompanied Raila said: "The commission told us that the only viable option was to do direct procurement for ballot papers and also briefed us on the ongoing voter register verification exercise."

Curiously, the opposition leaders did not raise the matter touching on the controversy over the presidential voter tallying in spite of having several times demanded that IEBC withdraw an appeal seeking to overturn a ruling by the High Court, which clarified that results declared at the constituency level cannot be altered.

"We hosted NASA leaders to deliberate on voter verification, nominations, campaigns, voting, and the elections conference," IEBC later tweeted.

The issue of ballot papers is the latest challenge facing the commission.

The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board ordered the termination of the process of identifying a supplier for the strategic election materials, citing flaws in tender documents.