After voter registration IEBC should move to civic education

By Koki Muli

The electoral system to be used in the 2013 polls will be new and different from what we are accustomed to

We have successfully come to the end of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise where over 14 million Kenyans were registered. Although, not the target of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), its still a very good number under the circumstances and Kenyans and IEBC deserve acknowledgement for accomplishing this task.

Once the data is sanitised and the accurate number of registered voters is confirmed in the next few weeks, we should briskly move to the next phase of the electoral process – voter education. Because we used the BVR equipment at registration; we shall have to use the Biometric Voter Verification (BVV) devices, to verify voters before they can be allowed to vote.

This ensures that only those registered this way and are in the register are allowed to vote. The BVV devices are also very accurate in counting the number of voters who have cast their ballots. This will mean, the number of voters indicated on the device must be equal to the number of ballot papers in the ballot box.

This is another way of reducing ballot box stuffing. I hope we shall have sufficient devices during voting for each polling station and spares in case of some malfunction. Because of this, voters need to know and understand very well the process of voting and what will be expected of them.

The 2013 election will be very different in many ways; apart from being conducted under a new legal and institutional framework, the electoral system and process to be used and followed will be new and different from what we are accustomed to. The number of elections to be conducted will also be different. Most important, the design of the ballot papers will also be different.

Due to the fact that coalitions of different parties will be allowed to participate in the elections with the law requiring presidential and governor candidates must have running mates, the ballot design for this two elections must be such that the presidential and running mate candidates are on the ballot paper with whatever symbol they have chosen for the coalition or political parties. The same will apply to the candidates for governor and their running mates and to all independent candidates.

This means that the different coalitions and independent candidates need to quickly work on their symbols and submit them to IEBC as they do their nominations. Most important, the candidates will have to conduct voter education as they engage in their campaigns.

On another sad note, the decision by the Supreme Court that the rule that requires representation of no more than two thirds of either gender in Parliament (Senate and National Assembly) to be applied progressively will complicate the electoral process and bring confusion in the allocation of seats.

Article 177 of the Constitution provides that “a county assembly consists of ... the number of special seats necessary to ensure that no more than two-thirds of the membership of the assembly is of the same gender...” This is a straight forward provision which did not require special interpretation by the Supreme Court.

The allocation of seats referred to in Article 177 will be proportionate to the number of seats a party or independent candidate garners in the county assemblies. Therefore, we should expect this immediate application of Article 177 to facilitate gender balance in all 47 county assemblies.

Since this express provision exists, deliberate efforts to ensure it is adhered to, will be made to ensure the law is not broken.

This is why, the Supreme Court should have in the spirit of the new Constitution, interpreted the gender balance provision in a wide-open and robust manner to give life and the intention of the Constitution the meaning it was supposed to carry. After all, if the drafters of the Constitution meant this provision to be applied progressively, why did they draft article 177?

The writer is an elections and constitutional law expert and lecturer, South Eastern University College