Kenya: IEBC Defends Bid to Change Live Transmission of Poll Results.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has defended itself against concerns that the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 seeks to scrap livestreaming of election results and return to the manual voting system.

Director Legal Service Chrispin Owiye told the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee that the Bill does not propose any amendment to Section 44 of the Elections Act that provides for the use of an Integrated Elections Management System for voter registration, identification and results’ transmission.

He termed the reports a misunderstanding and a misrepresentation of the Bill as tabled before the Parliament.

“All stakeholders must be allowed to have access to the election results including witnessing the tallying, declaration of the results,” he explained.

IEBC clarified that the Bill proposes a complementary mechanism for result transmission to address instances where transmission of results is not possible because of poor internet coverage