Azimio leader Raila Odinga
Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga now wants the Kenyan electoral system to be scrapped and a new system similar to the United States style adopted.
The former Prime Minister opines that the elections would be credible if the electoral body is devolved into regions or counties.
Raila also proposes political parties to be allowed to second their members to be part of the electoral agency.
“There is always the question of centralisation of election management. Do we need one electoral body to manage our elections or should elections management be devolved to the state regions or counties as in the case of the United States? Should parties be allowed to second their members to the election management bodies? My answer to these two questions is yes,” Raila says as quoted by the Daily Nation.
The ODM leader this week asked African countries to rethink the use of technology in elections.
Speaking at the 14th edition of the Leadership Annual Conference and Awards in Abuja, Nigeria, on Tuesday, Raila argued that technology is easily compromised.
“There is a need to rethink the use of technology. Either we adopt reliable election technology, including voting machines that generate a voter-verifiable audit trail, so voters can confirm that their choices are being recorded accurately, or we go fully manual,” said Raila.
He added: “The Supreme Court ruled that the technology used in the 2022 polls met the constitutional standards of integrity, verifiability, security and transparency, it is unclear on what objective criteria the Supreme Court arrived at this conclusion.”
The opposition chief also noted that there is a likelihood of voter apathy in 2027 if the issues surrounding the 2022 August General Election are not dealt with fully.
“Kenyans may lose all faith and decide to boycott future elections because they believe that their votes do not matter. Kenya has become a laboratory for bad election practices and others borrow in the continent,” said Odinga.
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