The electoral commission faces a fresh legal hurdle after an activist petitioned the High Court to compel the IEBC to open the voters’ register ahead of the August 8 poll.
Activist Gladwell Otieno yesterday told the court to ask the electoral agency to publish and open the register for public inspection as clustered per polling station.
Otieno told the court the register, as it is today, has inconsistencies in the numbers declared by the commission as the actual figures of registered voters.
With only 19 days left to the General Election, Otieno who is the founder and Executive Director of Africog, also wants the court to prohibit the commission from deploying a voters’ register for use at the election before it is subjected to public inspection.
In addition, she wants the IEBC stopped from distributing the voters’ register to returning officers pending determination of the case.
“The continued non-observance of the provisions of the law by the Chebukati-led commission constitutes a threat to the rights and freedoms to have a free and fair election,” she said.
She said failure by the electoral agency to open the voter register is an affront to the principles of the electoral system as expounded in Article 81 of the Constitution.
Otieno wants the suit to be expeditiously heard for Kenyans to have “a transparent electoral process”.