Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga's agents raised issues they termed as pertinent after touring Athens, Greece, to witness the ballot printing exercise.
The findings were submitted by Raila's longtime lawyerPaul Mwangi who penned a letter to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
Mwangi observed that there were two separate books marked Book 1 and Book 2 which were supposed to host Form 34As.
“Our team picked up that there were two books of Form 34As which were labelled as Book 1 of 2 and Book 2 of 2.
"The team sought a clarification from the commissioners representing the commission during the visit and the explanation given was that extra Form 34As were needed in each polling station because there was a need to give copies to election observers, media and other stakeholders,” Mwangi’s letter read in part.
The agents further reported that they noticed the IEBC had not published Form 34Bs.
“The second disturbing issue our team discovered at the printing firm was that the commission did not give an order to the printer for Form 34B. When our team inquired about this, they were informed that Form 34B was not necessary and that it will "generate itself' when results from Form 34A are keyed in,” he added.
However, IEBC sought to quell any suspicions with the Azimio group and the commission's vice-chair Juliana Cherera guaranteed the public that there will be no excess ballot papers printed.
"However, the team takes note of the printer's concern, especially on the late court ruling that delayed the printing schedule.
"The company had planned the last delivery date would be on July 29, 2022. However, due to the court ruling delay, the final delivery date will be August 3,” Cherera stated.
Apart from the matters raised by Azimio, the IEBC team on Wednesday revealed that they will be experiencing delays due to pending court battles and this will interfere with the arrival of ballot papers.
IEBC stated that it had scheduled all the 132 million ballot papers to be in the country by July 29 but the delay in ruling the cases had overstretched the polls body timelines.
IEBC stated that legal cases had derailed the preparedness of the commission in terms of printing and transporting ballot papers.
