NASA yesterday said the IEBC has not been cooperative in stopping potential election malpractices. The opposition wrote to the electoral agency last month demanding an audit of the voters’ register.
They also want the procurement guidelines followed, the Registrar of Persons data, the name of third parties who access IEBC servers and the number and status of the IEBC Servers.
They said if the issues were not resolved, the election will not be free, fair and credible.
But Jubilee, in a rejoinder, dismissed the issues raised by the opposition. “It is clear that NASA wants to prolong the pingpong game of musical chairs to avoid assured electoral defeat. Yesterday Jubilee demanded that all engagements be formal and bilateral,” Jubilee said in a statement.
“In this regard, we will be writing to the IEBC to call for an urgent meeting of the Electoral Technology Advisory Committee and the Political Parties Liaison Committee to discuss concerns of all players. Any other noise outside these structures should be treated as just that – noise.”
Speaking at Capitol Hill yesterday, NASA bosses said the IEBC is not prepared to conduct the elections due to the timelines and disregard of the law. “We raised pertinent issues to the IEBC, which if observed, would see the country hold free and fair elections, but the IEBC has dodged them in their reply,” ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi said. He said the opposition had all evidence to support their claims.
“We gave them the NYS list of hundreds of thousands of youths whose names found their way into IEBC’s voters’ register. We also called them since all the numbers are indicated and they confirmed they were registered as voters without their knowledge,” Musalia said.
Opposition chief Raila Odinga said only the commissioners at the IEBC understood why the electoral agency is reluctant to address the issues.
“We have always said we are ready for elections, but they must be free, fair and credible. It takes two to tango,” he said.
Raila said the country cannot hold an election with a “dirty” voters register. “We went to court to stop the tender to supply and deliver ballot papers, election results declaration forms and poll registers, because it should be the last thing to be procured. You cannot print ballot papers and yet you don’t know who the aspirants are,” he said.
The opposition said the IEBC must conduct the election on August 8, as demanded by the Constitution.