Fear of Voter Aparthy In Migori as Registration Closes

There is high fear of voter apathy in Migori County as low turnout is experienced in the last hours of voter registration.

Mr. George Jobando who is the coordinator IEBC in Suna East says that turn out is not very good in the area as they have only 50% threshold even as it remains few hours to closure of voter registration program country-wide.

"Turnout has not been very good in Suna East as we have, as at now, have only managed to register 6,300 people as opposed to 12,000 people which was our primary target," he said.

Mr. Jobando faults the unachieved target on the few number of National ID holders despite their age in the region. He however adds that the IEBC team, politicians, chiefs, local leaders and the media has done an outstanding job in mobilizing people to register as voters.

"One problem we have faced in Suna East is that many people, especially the youths do not have National Identification cards.Nonetheless, there has been enough mobilization throught the area with IEBC, politicians and local leaders taking the lead. The media also did an outstanding job in the same," he added.

Even as the public are only having few hours to register as voters, U-report has realised that the electoral body is only registering people with ID's and credible passport's only and not Waiting Cards as ordered by the President last week, terming it as a roadside declaration.

"IEBC does not take orders from the executive and besides the president is a politician. That statement might have only been political. We are not registering people with Waiting cards as they only bear serial numbers and not ID numbers which are key requirement for one to be registered as a voter," he concluded.

There are only 120 people out of 160 who have double registrations in the area that have turned up for re-registration. IEBC has extended the date of those affected by double registration to 16th of February 2016.