Economy

Nasa yet to receive 5,883 Form 34As from IEBC

IEBC

An Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission official opens a ballot box at a polling station on August 8. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is yet to publish and supply Opposition coalition Nasa with result forms from 5,883 polling centres ahead of Friday’s deadline to challenge the poll outcome.

International observers are now piling pressure on the elections agency to immediately make public all the forms from 40,883 polling stations — technically known as Form 34A — which is crucial data for Opposition chief Raila Odinga who is contesting the outcome of last week’s General Election.

IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba now says the agency is racing to deliver all the result forms by end of day today, having already supplied Nasa with 35,000 election result forms from polling stations.

“By Tuesday, Nasa had collected over 35,000 form 34As,” Mr Chiloba said in response to our queries.

“We have uploaded up to 35,000 form 34As. We intend to have all the forms on the public portal by Friday this week.” Mr Odinga must lodge his petition — complete with all evidence such as Form 34As he intends to rely on — to prove his claims that IEBC’s computer systems were hacked and the manual forms altered to give Mr Uhuru Kenyatta a strong lead.

READ: Relief as Raila goes to Supreme Court

Poll monitors from the European Union, Tennessee-based Carter Centre and the US National Democratic Institute have asked IEBC to publish all the polling centre results to allow an audit into the elections.

“The center urges the IEBC to finalise the posting of the 34As as expeditiously as possible, noting the August 18 deadline for filing challenges to the presidential election results,” said John Kerry, ex-US secretary of State and head of the Carter Center mission.

“Access to official results data is critical for interested parties so that they can cross-check and verify results, and exercise their right to petition if necessary,” said Kerry.

EU chief observer Marietje Schaake said that “provision of information and statistics would also help promote confidence through transparency.” The Washington DC-based institute called for “all tally sheets to be made available in a timely manner.”

The election observers want to avert a scenario similar to that of 2013 when Mr Odinga’s petition suffered a major blow when the Supreme Court threw out his 900-page replying affidavit saying it was filed outside the legal seven-day window.

Mr Chiloba had on Monday wrote to Nasa saying the electoral agency would delay supplying the remaining Form 34As yet to be uploaded on its public portal.