Raila to IEBC: No Manual Voter Register, No Election

Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition party presidential flagbearer Raila Odinga says Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) must adopt both manual and electronic voter registers.

Citing alleged plans by the electoral commission to interfere with the forthcoming elections, Odinga threatened that there will be no election unless both registers are availed.

“With a manual register, it will be easy to tell how many people have voted in every polling station. In the electronic register, there is no record that remains,” Odinga said during a campaign rally in Githunguri, Kiambu County on Wednesday.

He went on: “That is why we’re saying that there must be a manual register at every polling station, it is not negotiable. We’re telling the IEBC they must have a manual register along with the biometric identification of voters on that day; failure to which, there will be no election.”

Odinga, who is giving his fifth stab at the presidency, claimed that he has sufficient and reliable information that there is a plot to print excess pre-marked ballot papers in a neighboring country then sneak them in on the election day.

But in a rejoinder, Deputy President William Ruto told off Odinga for raising issues about the printing of ballot papers by Greek company Inform Lykos.

Ruto, who has endorsed IEBC’s plan to use only the electronic voter identification system in the August 9th elections, accused Odinga of attempting to interfere with the preparations for the exercise.

“Now they have started saying that they want to know who is printing the ballot papers. They have started saying they are ballot papers which will get into the country through Uganda and Ethiopia. You [Raila] have to make up your mind whether you want to be a candidate or a commissioner or a procurement officer,” Ruto said in Marsabit.

“We are ready come August 9th for the polls those from the Azimio camp should just prepare for the polls and wait for Kenyans to decide. Let them not bring intimidation and propaganda so that they can refuse to participate in the polls. I want to ask IEBC to take Odinga and witness the printing ballot papers and if he wants his brother to oversee the job, let him be given that job,” he added.