IEBC Lack Moral Authority to Comment on Voter Apathy

CORD PRESS RELEASE 15TH MAY 2014

The CORD Coalition takes great exception with the sentiments expressed by the IEBC Chair and his IEBC Commissioners regarding the conduct of the 4th March election. We wish to state as follows

1. That IEBC has no moral authority to comment on the voter turnout during the last general election for the following reasons:

• The Commission had fluid voter registers that kept oscillating with changing circumstances. This was a clear scheme to accommodate their cooked figures as evidenced through audit reports by various organizations

• The Commission deliberately bungled the Electronic Voter Identification Devices (EVID) or otherwise set them up for failure ab-initio. It is this devices that would have ascertained the voter turnout with razor accuracy. The argument that the low voter turn-out in CORD areas accounted for the coalition’s loss is frivolous, hopeless, scandalous and malicious to say the least. It is a belated attempt to sanitize the flagrant rape that the commission visited on the democratic rights of Kenyans.

2. That the assertion by IEBC that majority of eligible voters did not register in CORD areas and therefore significantly affected the coalition’s performance is both cynical and immoral in substance. It is on record that the commission orchestrated an evil voter registration exercise that was designed to produce certain results by disproportionately allocating few BVR machines in CORD areas where in many instances over 5 polling stations shared one BVR machine. These areas could therefore not achieve the same number of registered voters compared to the jubilee zones where the BVRs were sufficiently availed.

3. That the IEBC in a clear sign of moral and integrity retrogression proceeded to deploy a different voter register from the one gazetted in February for purposes of the election without notifying either the participating parties or the public as is by law required. This can only have been a promotion of a well-conceived plan to tilt the scales in the elections.

4. That the IEBC failed miserably in its constitutional duty to conduct a robust national wide voter civic education and awareness campaign. It must be remembered that it is the solemn duty of the commission to mobilize and register voters using the billions of taxpayers’ money allocated to them for the same purpose. The flawed attempt to shift this responsibility to parties must be condemned in the strongest terms possible

5. That the proposal by IEBC to stagger the elections will not impeach the corrosive damage that the commission inflicted on itself by bungling the election and descending to the arena of the contest. It is a belated attempt to run away from taking responsibility for the various actions and omissions during the 4th March elections. The golden truth is that the current officials of the Commission must be send packing to pave way for reconstitution of the commission with people who cherish high democratic ideals, democracy and strict adherence to electoral laws.  It will be unbearably expensive to an already overburdened Kenyan taxpayer by staggering the election.

To the contrary, we propose the devolution of the IEBC as an organization to the county level so that election results are managed and reported at the county level as it happens in South Africa where voting districts and provinces only report their aggregated results to the national aggregation centre.

FROM CORD SECRETARIAT

CORD Coalition Press Briefing on the Impending Presidential Petition

We have called this conference as part of our continuing briefing on the pending Presidential election petition.

We would like to draw the county’s attention to the following:

1. IEBC is currently running advertisements on media asking Kenyans to accept the results of the elections held last week. We would like to reiterate that the right to petition an election result is constitutionally guaranteed. IEBC as the institution whose deficiencies are subject of such challenges cannot therefore purport to ask the public to accept the election results as that is tantamount to violation of the democratic rights. We demand that the IEBC stop these advertisements forthwith.
2. As CORD prepares to file the petition against the presidential results, our candidate has made concrete assurances to the public that he will respect and uphold the decision of the Supreme Court on this matter. We hereby ask the Jubilee Alliance to issue a similar assurance to Kenyans.
3. We are concerned at attempts by sections of government to create the impression that the election is over and done with. We would like to inform the government, our supporters and Kenyans in general that the process of filing a petition is part and parcel of the election process and urge the government to respect this process and stop any provocative actions that could undermine the process and prevailing peace in the country.
4. Note that the Coalition government is still in place until the next President is sworn in, which will be clear when the petition to be filed within the constitutional timeline has been determined by the Supreme Court.

For

CORD COMMUNICATION TEAM
Hon James Orengo
Hon ​Mutula Kilonzo
Hon ​Ogla Karani

Statement by CORD Coalition Regarding Vote Tallying

 

We have consistently called for patience and peace among Kenyans at this critical time in the history of our county.

As a Coalition, we continue to call for calm, tolerance and piece among Kenyans.

However, this morning we have called to express serious reservations about the election exercise and in particular the tallying process going at the Bomas of Kenya.
 
Issues of grave concern are the following:

1. The failure of the Electronic Voter Identification in over 80 per cent of the Country.
2. The Law requires that voting results be transmitted electronically from polling stations to the National Tallying Centre before ferrying the actual results from the polling stations to protect them from being doctored. There has been a total failure of the Electronic Vote Transmission system an we have evidence that results we are receiving are actually being doctored. In some cases, total votes cast exceeds the number of registered voters. For example Bureti, Kajiado South, Runyenjes, Wajir North and Kathiani among others. In Kajiado South reg voters are 41,040 Uhuru had 24,000 Raila 17,500 Ole Kiyapi 186, PK 127, Mudavadi 106, Karua 44, Dida 14 Muite 9. Total is 41986.
3. IEBC's failure to address issues raised by Safaricom on the electronic voter tallying system.
4. Refusal by IEBC to allow CORD Agents to witness and verify the tallying at the Bomas of Kenya. In fact they were literally kicked out.

Because if the concerns, we as a coalition take the position that the national vote tallying process lacks integrity and has to be stopped and restarted using the Primary documents from the polling stations.

H.E Stephen K. Musyoka, EGH, MP
Vice President and Cord Running Mate
Thursday March 6, 2013

Statement by H.E. S.K. Musyoka on the Provisional Results of the 2013 General Elections

PRESS STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY STEPHEN KALONZO MUSYOKA ON THE PROVISONAL RESULTS OF THE 2013 GENERAL ELECTION

 

We wish to thank the millions of our supporters who turned up to cast their votes for reform, democracy and prosperity.

Most of you had to brave long lines and lengthy waiting periods and we applaud your patience and persistence.

We have noted that the process of releasing results by IEBC system is slow even in areas as close as Nairobi City and we have forwarded our concerns in this regard to them and we hope they will deal with them expeditiously and transparently.

We note with worry that there are those amongst our competitors who have not resisted the temptation to engage in premature celebrations that are neither based on data or fact.

The facts of the situation are that only approximately one third of all provisional results have been announced. There are about two thirds of all polling stations that are yet to report their results.

It is important that we await the outcome of the remaining two thirds of the polling stations in order to make any conclusion about the result of this election.

Consequently we appeal for calm and call on our supporters to relax because we are confident that after all votes are in CORD will carry the day.



God Bless You and God Bless Kenya

H.E STEPHEN KALONZO MUSYOKA