Home » IEBC Seeks to Prevent Irregular Mass Transfer of Voters

IEBC Seeks to Prevent Irregular Mass Transfer of Voters

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Voters in Mwala sub county wishing to change polling stations will be required to produce an introductory letter from the chief or assistant chief confirming that they have been residing in the area they are transferring to for at least six months, local Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Returning Officer Janet Mutie has said.

Mutie said the move is meant to prevent irregular mass transfer of voters from one region to the other during the mass voter registration exercise that kicked off yesterday.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting at the Mwala Deputy County Commissioner’s office, the returning officer said transfers have been used in previous mass registration exercises to import voters and noted that the Commission was keen to curb the vice.

“Most of the transfers especially in 2016 were not genuine as voters had been coerced to do so and we ended up registering more transfers than new voters. In some instances, voters transferred more than five times,” Mutie said.

 Mutie disclosed that that the Commission plans to register more than 18,720 new voters in the next 30 days in the sub county.

The returning officer said 19 Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits have been allocated across the six wards in the sub county for the enhanced voter registration exercise.

“Each ward will have three BVR kits while one kit will be mobile and will be moved across the sub county depending on the need,” Mutie said.

 Mutie said 36 registration clerks and six voter registration assistants have been recruited for the exercise.

“Each BVR kit will be managed by two clerks. They will be supervised by the voter registration assistant deployed in the wards,” the returning officer added.

She said besides the mass registration the Commission will also clean the register by removing deceased voters and rectify details of voters which had been captured erroneously.

Mutie said the voter registration will mainly target the youth especially those who have acquired their IDs cards recently and the BVR kits will be placed in strategic areas like churches, markets and in institutions to ensure that as many voters as possible are registered.

“The Commission will also engage a voter educator per ward besides chiefs, assistant chiefs and village elders to mobilize voters. We intend to use a collaborative approach for us to meet the target,” Mutie said.