UDA In Court To Oppose Use Of Manual Voter Register By IEBC

The IEBC’s use of the manual register is being resisted by a petition submitted by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

In court documents obtained by Citizen.Digital, the UDA party asserts that using the aforementioned registry will compromise the fairness of the elections.

“The integrity of the general elections is likely to be compromised by the possibility of misuse of the manual voter register during elections since a manual register lacks safeguards of enhancing the credibility of elections,” the court papers read.

The High Court ruling from August 4 directing the IEBC to utilize the manual register as its principal method of identification is likely to cause considerable controversy and confusion, according to the UDA, unless it is postponed.

“There will be the apparent and real likelihood of a serious conflict and confusion in terms of enforcement and implementation of law pertaining to the mode of identification of voters during the forthcoming general elections,” the court papers read.
The petitioner, citing a judgement issued on August 4, 2017, asserts that the court of appeal instructed the IEBC to use the printed voter register only when the KIEMS kits entirely malfunction with no chance of repair or replacement.

UDA Secretary General Veronica Maina asserts that a mistake was made when the IEBC was told to use the manual register.

“The learned Judge erred in fact and in law by failing to appreciate that section 44 of the Elections Act imposes the mandatory use of technology during the election exercise,” the court papers add.

The UDA party asserts that a manual voter register may only be used as an accounting document and cannot be used for identifying purposes under Regulation 69 (1) of the Elections (General) Regulations (e).