Electronic transmission of results did not fail by 'accident'

Lawyer George Oraro for Raila Odinga at the Supreme Court during the presidential election petition hearing March 27, 2013. Mr Oraro told the court the electronic transmission of the presidential results by the electoral commission did not fail by accident March 28, 2013 BILLY MUTAI  

By NATION Reporter
Posted  Thursday, March 28   2013 at  16:25

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said the electronic transmission of the presidential results by the electoral commission did not fail by accident.

Through his lawyer, George Oraro, Mr Odinga said mobile phone provider Safaricom had indicated to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that it was unable to provide network coverage for all polling stations and advised the commission to engage the services of a third party, a decision that was ignored.

The commission, said Mr Oraro, also failed to test their equipment to ensure the smooth flow of information from the polling station as had been advised by Safaricom.

“Furthermore, it was noted that the headsets that were to be used to transmit the results had been in storage from 2010, when the referendum to adopt the new constitution was held,” he said.

"As a result of all these failures, there was no electronic transfer of results. Had the IEBC been willing to listen to this advice and others, it would not have undertaken the election the way it did."

Mr Oraro expressed dismay that when the electronic tallying system failed Mr Odinga’s agents were willing to accommodate the failure through the ‘exhaustive verification’ of all the forms before the results were announced.

"This was however not to be. Our agents were not even allowed to raise objections on the results being announced and instead, they were actually thrown out of the tallying centre. Later on, we were given Form 36 to scrutinise the results but this only lasted for 20 minutes,” said Mr Oraro.

"My client was therefore denied the right to participate in the verification of the results, which was unilaterally done by the commission,” he said.

The lawyer said contrary to the recommendations of the Kriegler Commission, Returning Officers still yielded so much power.

“No one really knows what happens to the election documents once they are handed over to them by the Presiding Officers. It appears that the normally do whatever they want with them.”