Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chief Executive Ezra Chiloba has reacted to Opposition leader Raila Odinga's call for his resignation from the electoral body.
Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, Mr Chiloba noted that Mr Odinga's NASA team should stop focusing on him and look at the bigger picture of delivering the repeat election set for October 17th.
“I think we need to shift the focus because there is the greater interest of the country that goes beyond Chiloba,” he noted in an interview with NTV.
“I do not think I should be part of the matrix at this point...Whether me being there or not, they have a bigger challenge whether the country will be ready to conduct an election to the standards of the Supreme Court. And if we continue this way, then most likely we might not get there,” he noted.
The CEO indicated that the NASA team should concentrate on ensuring that the IEBC team puts in place election measures that meet the election standards set by the Supreme Court.
Regarding the key issues that affected the August 8 elections credibility, the electoral commission CEO strongly maintained that the IEBC servers were not hacked. He, however, acknowledged that some of the officials might have committed insignificant errors.
He also defended the commission on the failures identified by the Supreme Court, noting that the IEBC team did their best to ensure a credible election.
Nonetheless, he stated that the electoral body had identified several gaps in the electoral commission even before the release of the full Supreme Court verdict.
"Despite these minor irregularities, they needed not to amount to nullifying the entire presidential elections," he noted.
The commission is set to oversee fresh presidential elections on October 17th through a new team which was put in place by chairman Chebukati.
