Political, methodological, and security concerns have led to reduction in the number of European Union (EU) observers to be deployed in Thursday’s repeat polls.
In a statement, the EU Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) said that criticism projected towards observation mission after the August 8 polls by Kenya’s political class formed part of the decision to downsize the number of observers in the August 8 polls.
“We have assessed the safety of our observers considering the extreme tension, disruptions of polling preparations, and strong criticism that has been made of the international community.
“Based on this, we have had to reconsider the extent to which we can observe across the country,” said EU EOM in a statement, reports the Star.
The mission will focus more on systemic issues which compounded Supreme Court’s decision to nullify the last polls.
On this, the mission will focus more on results transmission and the availability of results forms.
Further, in light of criticism drawn from assessment of the elections in August, EU EOM will avoid commenting about the election and tallying.
The mission headed by Marietje Schaake reiterated IEBC is obligated to conducting free fair and credible polls.
It insisted that the electoral commission should work within the confines of the Constitution of Kenya.
“The mission is independent and has no preference about who wins or loses.”