Reforms required to raise number of registered voters

A curious thing happened in the recently-concluded elections in the United Kingdom.

While the Conservative party defied pundits and experts to win a majority in Parliament, the anomaly was that the Conservatives, after garnering about 37 per cent of the popular vote, earned 331 seats (51 per cent of the seats in Parliament) while a party like the UK Independence Party (UKIP) got only one seat (0.2 per cent of the total seats) despite claiming almost 13 per cent of the popular vote.

Had the seats been apportioned according to popular vote, UKIP would have been entitled to 84 seats.

The disparity between the numbers of votes received and the number of seats earned by the smaller parties gave rise to increased calls for electoral reform so that a party’s seats were more proportional to its popularity.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: “The political system in this country is broken, It’s ever clearer tonight that the time for electoral reform is long overdue, and it’s only proportional representation that will deliver a Parliament that is truly legitimate and better reflects the people it is meant to represent.”

What this demonstrates is that even in mature democracies, electoral reform is a continuous process. Here in Kenya, the sort of reform we need is more basic to deal with more rudimentary problems.

Only last week, IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba reported that densely populated counties have unacceptably low voter registration levels with Trans Nzoia, Bungoma, Migori, Busia, Kakamega, Nandi and Homa Bay topping the list.

Mr Chiloba warned that if this continues, 10.7 million eligible voters will be disenfranchised in the 2017 General Election. According to him, there will be 25 million eligible voters by 2017 and with 14.3 million already registered, 10.7 million will be unregistered if no action is taken. Trans Nzoia tops the list of densely populated counties with poor voter registration with 39 per cent of its eligible voters yet to do so.

It is followed by my home county Bungoma with 33 per cent of eligible voters are yet to register. Other densely populated counties with high numbers of eligible voters yet to register include Migori (33 per cent), Busia, Kakamega, Nandi and Makueni (27 per cent).

It is interesting to note that only Jubilee strongholds which suffer low voter registration are Meru, Nandi, West Pokot, Baringo and Narok counties. On the other hand, entire swathes of CORD strongholds in Nyanza, Western and Coast regions are the hardest hit by low voter registration. As I keep repeating, I am not a believer in this sort of coincidence.

So what exactly is the problem? We have an institution whose primary mandate is voter registration. It is by design that voter registration comes first on the list of the commission’s responsibilities under Article 88 (4) of the Constitution.

The commission has been properly facilitated in terms of resources. In the next budget the commission has been allocated Sh3.6 billion. For perspective, that figure beats the allocations each of about 12 counties received in the 2014/15 financial year. So what more does Mr Chiloba want from us? The pattern of registration impeaches any argument of the impartiality of the IEBC when it comes to voter registration. It is not lack of voter awareness or poor mobilisation by local politicians in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia. Games are being played in allocation of voter registration equipment and resources.

This situation persists because no bar has been set for the IEBC and it can choose to set it wherever it wants. In other words, mediocrity is allowed to thrive.

This is precisely the problem the Okoa Kenya Movement seeks to address by including, in its electoral reform package, a proposal to provide for minimum thresholds the commission must meet. If passed, the IEBC will be constitutionally bound to register at least 80 per cent of the eligible voters in each constituency.