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The Supreme Court has issued recommendations which it says will stem the perennial administrative shortfalls plaguing the IEBC.
In its 133 page reasoned judgment on the presidential petition released on Monday, the seven-judge bench cited corporate governance issues, election technology and Forms 34A design as the areas to be addressed.
On corporate governance, the judges have recommended that there be a clear separation of powers between the Commission’s chairperson and other commissioners concerning policy, strategy and oversight responsibilities.
“The roles of the chairperson, commissioners, and the Chief Executive Officer, other staff and third parties should be clearly set out in both the legislative and administrative edicts as stipulated above,” the court said.
It added that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission should develop and institutionalise internal formal guidelines on how to manage the separation of the administrative and policy roles.
On election technology whose alleged interference formed majority of the arguments by the petitioners, the apex court said access to the servers should be restricted to the IEBC staff during the election period to avoid suspicion from stakeholders.
“IEBC should ensure that the servers supporting the elections and those serving their internal administrative work are distinct and separate,” the court added.
“This would then allow the Court, should the need arise, to carry out forensic imaging of the same without compromising or infringing any third party agreements,” it added.
In his petition, Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga claimed that a Venezuelan named Jose Camargo gained access to the IEBC public portal and interfered with Forms 34As used to tally results from the constituencies.
Still on the forms issue, the court said IEBC should consider redesigning Forms 34A and include a column that accounts for stray ballots.
During the petition hearing, the commission had a hard time explaining to court how stray ballots are accounted for in an election.
A stray ballot is a valid vote which is placed in the wrong ballot box during voting.
In its final results tally, the Commission only accounted for valid votes and rejected votes.
The court also said IEBC should consider having only one section of total valid votes.
“The Independent body may also find it prudent to thoroughly train it Returning Officers as to what constitutes valid votes as per this court’s decision,” the court said.