Final batch of presidential ballot papers arrive

Independent Electoral and Boundaries commissioner Dr. Roselyne Akombe,during inspections of Bomas of Kenya,tallying center ahead of general election on August 8,on 25 July 2017.[Edward Kiplimo,Standard].

The final batch of presidential ballot papers arrived in the country last night as the electoral agency entered the homestretch of its poll preparations.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) yesterday received 161 pallets for 17 counties. It received 192 pallets on Monday for 30 counties.

"The second and last batch of presidential ballot papers arrived  at 8.20pm. 161 pallets for 17 counties - Laikipia (No 31) to Nairobi (No 47)," said IEBC.

The poll materials arrived in the middle of a political storm kicked by the commission's decision to print an additional 1.2 million ballot papers.

IEBC has printed 20,818,000 ballot papers for the presidential election against the 19,611,423 voters registered to participate in the General Election.

This is over and above the 1 per cent extra papers allowed by the law.

This afternoon, the IEBC will carry out a dry run on its electronic result transmission system at Bomas of Kenya to demonstrate how results will be relayed in real time from all the 40,883 polling stations.

In an earlier interview, IEBC Commissioner Roselyne Akombe admitted that transmission of results remains the main headache in the preparations.

She said electronic transmission is vulnerable to malware and cyber attacks thus the commission's insistence to have a manual back-up.[Moses Nyamori]