NAIROBI, Jan 8 (NNN-KBC) — A record 82 political parties have been approved by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to participate in the coming general elections slated for August.
The commission has approved the political parties nomination rules for the 82 parties seven months to the elections.
Addressing the press at Lake Naivasha Resort during the commission retreat, Chebukati noted that a total of 83 parties had applied to be cleared for the elections.
“The commission has a statutory duty to approve the nominations rules in order to clear the parties to participate for the elections and we have approved 82 political parties,” he said.
On voter registration, Chebukati said that the exercise would start on Jan 17 and run to Feb 6 with a target of registering 4.5m new voters.
He noted that in a similar exercise that targeted six million voters last year, the commission managed to get over 1.5 million and hence the last registration exercise.
The chairman however admitted that they faced a deficit of Ksh 5B to fully undertake the exercise that will see voters in the diaspora registered.
“Despite the shortfall in funding, we are confident of achieving our target and we plan to increase the BVR kits in colleges and universities,” he said.
Chebukati added that voter registration exercise for diaspora voters would begin from Kenyan Embassies and Consulates as from Jan 21 to Feb 6.
The exercise which was previously carried out in Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa has been expanded to UK, Canada, US, South Sudan, Qatar and UAE and Germany.
“The commission will use bio-metric voter registration kits to capture bio-metric and biographic details and we are challenging those voters who have not been registered to turn up,” he said.
He noted that as per the election rules, public officers interested in contesting in the general elections should vacate office by Feb 9, 2022. — NNN-KBC
