Kitutu Masaba MP Timothy Bosire now wants the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to conduct three massive voter registration exercises in 2016 for early preparation of the voter register.
IEBC had set February 2016 and April 2017 as the months exclusively for massive voter registration, a move Mr. Bosire believes will lock out a number of eligible voters from registration ahead of the polls.
Speaking when he issued CDF cheques at Mochenwa Secondary School on Thursday, Mr. Bosire said conducting the exercise thrice in 2016 will ease the last minute rush in the final massive voter registration in 2017.
“We must admit that the two months set aside by IEBC are not enough. It will be appropriate if they conduct massive voter registration thrice in 2016 before concluding with the one which they have scheduled to take place in April 2017. We want to avoid last minute registration which might bring confusion in 2017,” he said.
The lawmaker said the move will also allow the electoral body to carry out verification of voter register top avoid cases emerging during polling day.
“If they stand with their decision of holding only two massive registrations, I see a probability of having a lot of anomalies in 2017. They should ensure many people are registered as early as this so that in 2017 they do more of voter register verification rather than registration. They must learn to be proactive,” he said.
He urged IEBC leadership to submit a budget that can be able to sustain three registration exercises in 2016 for approval in parliament and promised to marshal support from MPs to vote for the budget.
“All they have to do is to make estimates of how much the exercises will cost so that we approve it in parliament. Voting is an essential exercise because it determines the kind of leaders’ people elect. We want many Kenyans to participate,” he said.