The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) according to its Chairman, will begin posting presidential election results from various polling stations around the nation only after it has authenticated the forms 34A transmitted by the presiding officers.
Wafula Chebukati made the said announcement on Tuesday evening, when he stated that the commission expects constituency returning officers (CROs) to deliver forms 34A physically at the Bomas of Kenya, the national tallying centre, beginning Wednesday morning to pave way for the verification process.
The IEBC Chair also stated that areas in Kakamega, Nairobi, Makueni, and Isiolo where voting was delayed owing to logistical and other challenges were given more time to complete the different processes before forwarding forms 34A to the national tallying office.
“Once the CROs have brought the form 34As, we will begin the verification process and keep Kenyans updated,” Mr Chebukati said in the auditorium of the Bomas of Kenya.
By the time Mr Chebukati made his announcement, forms 34A from 32,065 out of the country’s 46,229 polling stations had already been placed on the IEBC’s live webpage.
The commission, however, cannot rely on the given forms to begin tabulating the provisional presidential election results until they have been confirmed in the presence of the CROs across the Country.
Mr Chebukati further stated that the results transmission system, which is part of the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) was used as a primary voter identification in the voting process and was set up to only send results to the national tallying center once.
“The kits cannot send results twice, and the results announced at polling stations are definitive and cannot be changed,” added the IEBC chairman.