The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has been urged to thoroughly scrutinise applicants for voter registration assistants who are expected to operate from ward level to ensure they are not affiliated to any political party.
This as IEBC prepares to start a one month voter registration exercise that is set to start of February 15 and end in March 15, 2016.
Speaking at his Sameta ward on Monday, MCA Evans Siko said it was important for the commission to ensure those conducting registration did not have any political interest.
“We are all aware that IEBC is recruiting voter registration assistants from every ward but it’s important that they are not persons who have political interests. They must be persons of high integrity with no political affiliation so that the exercise is free and fair to all parties participating in an election,” he said.
He said recruiting registration assistants who have political ambitions was likely to disadvantage some candidates in 2017 because they are likely to use their influence and do irregular registration.
“Previously we have dealt with cases of people being transported from some areas to register as voters. We want people who will be able to combat such cases and only register genuine people without working with aspirants to register their preferred persons,” he added.
Siko also suggested that the recruits to be swooped at ward level as a way of dealing with any emerging partisanship claims.
“Alternatively they should swoop those recruited so that they go to a different ward where politicians will not attempt to compromise them when registering. Otherwise, I will in the front line to resist people who may be employed yet they had before participated in political process such as campaigning for certain candidates," he added.