Kenya election campaigns to end on Saturday – IEBC

Political campaigns will end on Saturday Kenya’s electoral body has announced with top political leadership of two major parties including Jubilee Party and NASA and others intensifying their last effort to gather support for their candidates and ensuring their victory.

The polling is scheduled to be held on  August 8.

Election campaigns end on Saturday 5th, August, that is 48 hours to the start of voting

— IEBC (@IEBCKenya) August 2, 2017

19,611,423 eligible voters will participate in the exercise according to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The register of voters increased by 36 percent (5,222,642 voters) since 2013. Among the number. The electoral body also stated that 53 percent of those registered are male compared to 47 percent female. On age representation, 51 percent (9,930,315) of the registered voters represents persons aged 18 – 35 years.

Eight candidates are contesting for the presidency – Uhuru Kenyatta of Jubilee Party, ODM’s Raila Odinga, Cyrus Jirongo of the United Democratic Party (UDP), Ekuru Aukot of Thirdway Alliance, Abduba Dida of the Alliance for Real Change (ARC), and Independent candidates Joseph Nyagah, Michael Wainaina and Japheth Kavinga.

Read: Becoming Kenya’s 5th President: The Road Ahead

The contest for the Presidential seat will  be determined by the total number of votes cast countrywide to determine what of those total votes constitute 50 percent plus one vote and then  the total votes cast in each of the 47 counties to determine if the candidate with 50 percent plus one vote also has at least 25 percent of the votes in 24 Counties. So, each valid vote cast will matter in who becomes the President of Kenya after the final poll results have been announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

Read: Presidential results announced at constituency are final – Court

The seat for County Ward Representative has attracted the most number of candidates totaling 11,857 followed by the position of the member of National Assembly where 1,893 candidates have been cleared to run.

The Senate contest has attracted 256 contestants while 299 women have been cleared to contest for the 47 County Woman Representative posts across the country.

IEBC cleared 210 candidates to vie for various gubernatorial posts across the country.

Read: 

• Kenyan Electorate torn between Political Parties, Manifestos and the reality 
• Elections: Kenya needs a courageous Judiciary more than ever

Pollsters

Major pollsters on Tuesday differed on who was the favourite to win in the presidency.  – Infotrak predicted a close presidential contest, with Raila in the lead (49 per cent) against Mr Kenyatta (48 per cent). On the other hand, Ipsos predicted that Uhuru was ahead at 47 per cent against his main rival at 44 per cent.

Ipsos interviewed 4,308 people across all the counties with a confidence level of 95 per cent, Infotrack interviewed 5,000 respondents.

However, a study conducted by Center for African Progress between July 28 and August 1 indicates that Raila would manage 43 per cent of the presidential vote compared to Uhuru’s 54 percent from 8,995 respondents.

Ballot papers distribution

The distribution of the ballot papers to all the 290 constituencies begun on Wednesday. The exercise will be carried out by the Postal Corporation of Kenya which is anticipated to end by 6 of August. 

Further, the electoral body on Wednesday conducted a live simulation of the election results transmission system countrywide to test its capability ahead of next week’s elections.

Voting

According to the  Elections (General) (Amendment)  Regulations 2017, section 31:

(e) in case the electronic voter identification device fails to identify a voter the presiding officer shall—

(i) invite the agents and candidates in the station to witness that the voter cannot be identified using the device;

(ii) complete verification Form 32A in the presence of agents and candidates;

(iii) identify the voter using the printed Register of voters; and

(iv) once identified proceed to issue the voter with the ballot paper to vote.