Election Observer Group (ELOG) Chair Regina Opondo has clarified that the credibility of the repeat presidential poll cannot be verified at the moment. While addressing the press, she noted that the electoral process isn’t a one-time event, rather, it has a pre-election period, voting period and post-election period and at the moment any twist can still happen, “We can’t speak about credibility at this stage. We are in a post-election process and cases may even be filed in court,” she said.
She noted that the election had several challenges which made the environment not conducive, “Some of the things we looked at are security and peace. You must have an environment of peace for elections to happen well and this was not possible, given that people lost their lives, some were displaced. It was not a problem only for IEBC but everyone.”
Some of the things the election observer group looked at included voter turnout, “In some places it was high and in other places the turnout was low,” she noted. Voter education was also addressed and the ELOG chair said IEBC had a challenge because they had sixty days to try and reach out to Kenyans on issues dealing with voter education, “It’s doubtful they did a significant and comprehensive voter education.”
Election offences were also highlighted, including regulation of campaign financing. She said that IEBC has power in the constitution to look at the issue of campaign financing, “We also saw offences being committed, including violence against women, bribery among other issues.”