IEBC Agrees with Jubilee on Some Proposed Amendments on Electoral Laws

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has agreed with six of the 11 clauses that the Jubilee Party seeks to amend on the elections law ahead of October 26th repeat presidential election.

While submitting its views on the proposed laws to the joint parliamentary committee on Thursday night, the commission, however, disagreed with two and partly agreed with three.

The commission agrees with the proposal to have another commissioner appointed as chairperson in the absence of the chairman or his deputy. The electoral commission also nodded to a proposal that allows a complementary mechanism to identify voters and another that stops the overturning of results om basis of clerical errors.

Further, the commission also agreed with the proposed definition of a fresh poll after an invalidation of a previous one and the recommended jail term of five years for officers who fail to fill, sign or submit incomplete forms. It also agreed to proposal that deputy chairperson of the commission take up the role of the chair in case of absence, just like Deputy President act as the President in his absence and Deputy Chief Justice can swear in the President in the absence of the Chief Justice.

On the transmission of results IEBC, however, asked the ad hoc joint parliamentary committee to state that the results should be 'physically delivered' by returning officers before they announce the final presidential election. The commission asked the committee to keep the provision that the chairman of the commission be a lawyer qualified to be appointed as a Supreme Court judge.