AN OVERVIEW OF THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM

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 Transparency  Security  Professionalism  Accuracy  Secrecy  Timeliness  Accountability  Equity

The Constitution of Kenya [Article 86 ] (b) and (c) vests the IEBC with the power to ensure that the votes cast are counted, tabulated and the results announced promptly by the Presiding Officer (PO) at the polling station;

 The IEBC is empowered by the Elections Act 2010 to make regulations prescribing the procedure to be followed in counting votes and announcing results.  After the casting of votes is done, the polling station is converted into a counting station and agents, candidates, the media, observers and members of the public may witness the counting.

 The PO reconciles the # of ballot papers used & determines the # of the votes cast.  Agents are invited to sign confirming the figures  The seals are then removed & votes are poured on the table.  The votes are sorted, arranged by the candidate name, counted and tallied.  With the concurrence of the agents, The PO declares the results for that station.

 The Presiding Officer then delivers the signed copies to the RO who receives, tallies the results received from different stations and upon verification announces the final results. The results from the various polling stations SHOULD BE openly and accurately collated and promptly announced by the Returning Officer (RO) at the designated HQs.

 The appropriate authority should make the official final election results available as soon as possible after the counting process has been concluded.  Generally, the local or national office of the electoral management body will be responsible for announcing and releasing the official results.

Some electoral laws stipulate a fixed day for announcing the official results. Our constitution in Article 138 [10] (a) and (b), stipulates that the announcement for presidential elections should be WITHIN 7days and that a written notification by the IEBC chair to be given to the CJ and the sitting President.

 It may be desirable to merge or amalgamate results from several voting stations to protect the secrecy of the vote.  This is generally done if the publication of results at a detailed level might identify the names and votes of particular individuals.  This can happen if the number of votes at a voting station is so small that there is a significant risk that all the votes will be for one candidate or party.

 This can also be done in cases where there is a real risk that publishing the voting results at a particular voting station could result in retribution against the persons who voted there.  This problem can be mitigated by mixing the ballots from two or more voting stations from different areas.

 Merging results can also be done for incarcerated voters, absentee, or other categories of voters using special ballots. Since the ballots are usually counted at the head office of the electoral management body, results can easily be merged with other results in order to protect the secrecy of the vote. For internal use only, a special notation can be made in order to keep the audit trail clear.

 In some countries, judicial courts are only involved in the electoral process after the election, when offenders against the electoral law are brought to trial, or when an electoral result is challenged.

 In other jurisdictions, the courts may have a significant role to play in confirming the outcome and official results of the election, where the results are official only when the court has confirmed them. Such confirmation should be done as soon as possible, in order to avoid political instability and potential delays associated with a transition from one government to another.

 The courts may also be directly involved in the official count, along with the electoral management body.  This will generally be the case if final approval of the count must come from the courts.

ASANTE SANA