Kenya’s fifth President could be announced less than 24 hours after August 8 polls in a new plan by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
The commission plans to announce the Presidential winner soonest possible to shun instances of rigging, accusations, and conflict.
According to plans in place by the commission, the winner of 2017 Presidential polls could be announced at 4:30 pm the following day after elections.
In previous elections, Presidential winners have been declared by the electoral agency several days after polls are closed at 5 pm.
In 2007, retired president Mwai Kibaki was announced as the winner after four days while in 2013, President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner five days later.
However, with high technology in place in the forthcoming polls, key functions for the IEBC which include tallying of Presidential results will be fast unlike in the past.
Out of the 41, 000 polling stations country wide, all results will be tabulated at the polling stations and results announced there before they are transmitted to the Constituency tallying centre from where they proceed to the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya.
IEBC cannot, however, alter the results going by a Court of Appeal ruling. Presidential results announced at the Constituency will be final.
In a press conference on Wednesday, IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati noted that electronic transmission of results will not only be fast but will also minimize chances of having results altered.
“Electronic transmission of election results in a prescribed form is a critical way of safeguarding accuracy of the outcome,” said Chebukati.
He added that IEBC’s role at the Bomas of Kenya will be to receive results trickling in and verify if the winning candidate has met the constitutional threshold of 50 per cent + one votes and also obtained 25 per cent of votes in at least 24 counties.
In the new arrangement, presiding officers, will not travel to the constituency tallying centers. They will electronically transmit election results to constituency tallying officers who will, in turn, relay them electronically to the national tallying center.
Returning officers will be required to send scanned copies of the election results to the national tallying center as opposed to the past when they were required to travel all the way.
Also, in new regulations by the IEBC, TV stations will not televise updates of provisional results like in the past.
The final Presidential results will be declared by Chebukati at the Bomas of Kenya.
It is expected that once polling centers close on August 8 at 5 pm after voting ends, results from the 290 constituencies will start trickling in at Bomas the following day.
Here, IEBC’s daunting task will be to collate results and confirm if the threshold for a Presidential win for each candidate has been met. This, if the technology does not fail, could be done in three hours and end by noon.
On August 9, a few hours after noon, Chebukati could announce the winner though the Constitution has given the poll agency seven days to announce Presidential results after the elections.