Election Call Centers equipped, Media Briefed : Kenya readies for elections

By Shankar Pandiath
TMCnet Contributor

The IECB, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya are set to conduct elections on March 4, 2013. All measures are now in place and candidates have been accredited. Two hotline numbers are to be used during the voting, and tallying day have also been tested and released.

The two hotline numbers were activated on Saturday night on a trial basis. The citizens are being encouraged to can post their questions on matters regarding the election and will receive replies on the IEBC twitter handle.

The commission released a statement which said that the provisional results from all parts of the country will be received and tallied at the center in real time at the commission's designated venue Bomas. The provisional results will be screened; scrutinized and official results will be tallied, and then announced. To ensure visibility, accredited local and international media practitioners will have access into the venue during the election period.

IEBC has been busy taking all sorts of measures to ensure free and fair elections. To avoid last minute hitches, the commission has embarked on early preparations of sharing information.

International and local media practitioners were taken through a simulation of the results transmission process at Bomas of Kenya, which will be the National Tallying Centre of the General Elections. The Information Technology and Communications staff of IEBC helped create awareness by engaging journalists on electoral technology and by helping make sure that election coverage is broadcasted without confusions and hassles all over the world.

IEBC, with support from local media, is trying to create full awareness among its voting citizenry. It has been simulating the voting process on television so that the voters are able to understand the processes better. Eight presidential candidates have been cleared by IEBC for whom Kenya will vote on March 4, 2013. The trained call center representatives will offer all help to the callers at IECB.

Concerned citizens, civil society groups, politicians, the international community and all other stakeholders are keen on institutionalizing a sustainable electoral process in Kenya. Kenya is keen on learning from the mistakes of elections that was held in year 2007 and wants elections that are conducted peacefully, transparently and democratically.