Cord seeks to reduce IEBC boss’ powers ahead of polls

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) will introduce a Bill in Parliament to trim the powers of the national polls boss as part of reform proposals ahead of the next General Election.

Under the changes proposed on Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC), presidential results will be announced at the constituency and county levels with national tallying centre only being left with a simple task of working out the final numbers.

At the moment, the presiding and returning officers declare results at polling stations and constituency levels respectively but the signed results have to be sent to the national tallying centre for commissioners to announce presidential scores.

Clarion call

“Cord will, in the current session of Parliament, sponsor a Bill to devolve IEBC and fix other far-reaching electoral reforms to ensure that Kenyans never ever go into elections where their votes count for nothing again,” the coalition said in a statement read by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba.

By planning to devolve functions, Cord on Thursday appeared to have toned down on its earlier demand for disbandment of the IEBC — its clarion call since it lost in last year’s elections.

Instead, the coalition said that it was compiling a list of IEBC officials who served as returning officers in the areas where forms 34 and 35 were reported to have gone missing.

“We will hold them individually responsible for losing those forms and take them to court for professional negligence among other crimes,” said Mr Namwamba.

Poor governance

The coalition, however, maintained its opposition to the planned digital national ID registration saying the Sh8 billion required for the exercise has neither been factored in the budget nor discussed by the National Assembly and the Senate.

Once again, Cord leadership criticised the government over what it termed as lacklustre performance even as it glossed over its own failure to keep the Jubilee Coalition on its toes in both Houses.

They singled out rising state of insecurity as manifestation Jubilee’s poor governance.