Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman (IEBC) Wafula Chebukati has filed a petition at the Supreme Court.
Chebukati is seeking clarification on how to handle discrepancies in tallies in forms 34B when compared to 34A.
He argued that while the Court of Appeal had in the Maina Kiai case ruled that what is announced at the polling station is final, the Supreme Court in its landmark ruling that invalidated the August 8 poll indicted him for not verifying the crucial documents.
“Arising from the judgment of this Honourable Court, I am now unclear as to what as the returning officer for the presidential election I am supposed to do in view of the clear prohibition at page 39 of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the Maina Kiai case barring me from “varying, confirming, altering, modifying or adjusting the results,” Mr Chebukati says in an affidavit filed at the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Under the Election Regulations, Form 34A is the first form used to tabulate results of the presidential election. It is filled by the presiding officer after the counting of votes at the polling station.
[caption caption="IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati and President Uhuru Kenyatta"]
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It contains details of the votes garnered by each candidate and also details the total number of registered voters in that station, the rejected votes, the objected ones, the disputed and the valid ones.
The candidates or their agents are then required to sign and ratify that the contents of that form are correct.
Section 39 of the Elections Act provides that for a presidential election, the IEBC “shall electronically transmit, in the prescribed form, the tabulated results of an election for the president from a polling station to the constituency tallying centre and to the National Tallying Centre.”
Form 34A is handed over to the constituency returning officer, who then fills Form 34B. It is used for the collation of the presidential election results from all polling stations within a constituency.
The forms were a bone of contention during the Supreme Court hearing on the presidential election as members of the opposition claimed IEBC had refused to hand them the forms.
[caption caption="IEBC Officials"]
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NASA claimed the failure to avail the forms could only lead to a conclusion that the forms do not exist and the commission is busy generating fake ones to justify its declaration.
Supreme Court nullified the August 8 presidential election over various flaws in the electoral process and ordered fresh polls on October 26.
Last updated at 2:51 pm: Details of the petition emerged and indicated that IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati was unsure of what to do in view of the clear prohibition at page 39 of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the Maina Kiai case barring him from “varying, confirming, altering, modifying or adjusting the results.
