IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati. [Photo: Courtesy]
A section Kisumu residents have taken the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to court over the announcement of presidential results.
The voters have filed a case at the High Court, demanding the electoral body to reduce the time frame of announcing the presidential results.
The three, Jackeline Otieno, Francis Ogada and Titus Alila want the window period for IEBC to announce presidential results reduced from 7 days to 7 hours.
They argued that the 7 day period stipulated in the constitution for IEBC to announce the president elect is too much time and that could lead to violence in the country.
“The 7 days allowed by the Constitution for the declaration of presidential results is too long. The delays in announcing the provisional election results could cause chaos,” said the trio as quoted by Daily Nation, Monday.
The voters have asked the court to reduce the 7 days to 7 hours so as to avoid any chaos erupting in the country after the August general election.
“Our petition is in the public interest because we have invested KSh 3.8 billion in the Kenya Integrated Election Management System to ensure electronic transmission of results from the constituencies to the national tallying center, “The results can be tallied within 7 hours and announced after polling stations and constituency tallying centers have officially announced them and the final declaration be done in Nairobi. The counting of votes starts at the same time as the other five positions too therefore the presidential results should not be any different,” argued the trio,” the three voters argued.
Justice David Majanja directed the IEBC to respond to the filed case within 7 days