IEBC: How your vote moves from the ballot box to Bomas of Kenya

Ballot boxes are being moved to Machakos University. [John Muia, Standard]

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati has explained how the vote is transmitted from the ballot box to the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya.

The voting process begins with the voter. A voter is given six ballot papers, from which they will elect leaders of their choice, by marking on the ballot papers.

At the Polling Station...

Once the polling station is closed at 5 pm, the counting of votes begins.

First, the IEBC officials educate the agents, members of the press as well as election observers on how to identify a spoilt vote then the counting begins.

The numbers are recorded on Form 34A by the polling station's presiding officer.

The presiding officer and agents present at the polling station sign form 34A once all agents are in agreement with the counting.

The presiding officer then stamps the form 34A with an IEBC stamp, keys in the election results from Form 34A into the KIEMS kit, and verifies the accuracy of entries.

The officer submits to IEBC the results using the KIEMS kit and then proceeds to deliver the ballot box, original Form 34A, and other election materials to the constituency returning officer.

The results can only be keyed in once.

At the Constituency Tallying Centre

Here, sealed ballot boxes from the polling centres are brought along with all Form 34A copies from polling stations in the jurisdiction.

The Constituency Returning Officer records election results from all original forms 34A as received from all polling stations in the constituency to form 34B and verifies the entries.

It is at this stage that the Constituency Returning Officer declares the MP and MCA winners.

Once all the results are announced and all parties present agree, the presiding officer fills in their names, ID, sign, date, and stamps the form 34B.

The officer scans and sends all Form34A and 34B to the IEBC portal using the secured transmission

Once this is done, the Constituency Returning Officer will submit forms 34A and 34B to the National Tallying Centre.

The officer physically delivers original forms 34A and 34B to the IEBC chairperson at the national tallying centre

At the County Tallying Centre

Results from the constituencies are tallied here.

This is where the county Governor, Senator, and Woman Representative winners are declared.

At the National Tallying Centre- Bomas of Kenya

This is where the presidential election results are announced.

At this stage, the key person is the commission's chair, Wafula Chebukati who doubles up as the presidential returning officer.

He receives and tallies all constituency results in form 34B and election results forms declaration 34A.

Together with a team of experts, the chairman verifies the electronically collated results in form 34B against each electronic polling station result in forms 34A.

Here, Chebukati's roles are:

To record errors/variances discovered in Form 34B in the National Tallying Center notebook.

To tally by recording election results from all forms 34B of the presidential election as received from all the constituencies to form 34C.

He also verifies the collated results in forms 34C against each polling station result form 34A

He can also invite chief agents to verify and confirm the results in form 34C.

The chairman then announces the results of the declaration form 34C to agents.

Chebukati will print the form 34C generated and gives copies to chief agents, declare the Presidential election results using form 34C then fill and issue (form 34D) certificate to the person declared elected.