IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba Steps Aside, Days to the October 26th Repeat Election

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) CEO Ezra Chiloba is taking a three-week leave of absence and will be away when the repeat presidential election is conducted next week, reports Daily Nation.

Sources told Daily Nation that the embattled Chiloba is stepping away “in order to build confidence in stakeholders” and avoid being a distraction.

This follows weeks of demonstrations by National Super Alliance (NASA) leaders and supporters who have been calling on him to step aside.  The opposition side has been accusing him of rigging the nullified August 8th election in favor of Jubilee, despite the Supreme Court not finding anyone culpable of rigging or manipulating the votes.

In addition to Chiloba, NASA has been calling for the ouster of Prof Guliye who used to head the subcommittee on research, strategy and ICT, ICT director James Muhati, voter registration and electoral operations director Immaculate Kassait, head of operations Betty Nyabuto among others.

Chiloba said he believes the commission will still deliver a credible election even without his presence because sufficient preparations had been done to address the gaps identified by the Supreme Court, the source told Daily Nation.

Chiloba’s move comes only two days after Dr Roselyn Akombe resigned from the commission, saying partisan politics had been injected into the commission and commissioners were based their decisions based on partisan lines. She said the did not believe the IEBC could deliver a credible election on October 26th, and as such did not want to be part of it (READ: Former IEBC Commissioner Roselyn Akombe Breaks into Tears During an Interview with NPR Radio in the US)