2017 General Election results: The Process

IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati details the process of transmission of election results #ElectionsKE

What you need to know:

  • Mr Chebukati said that the declaration of the presidential results shall be based on the verification that the constitutional threshold has been obtained by the winning candidate.

  • The commission shall also display the results as received from polling stations in all the tallying centres, also available on a web portal, Mr Chebukati said.

The electoral commission has defended its decision to scrap periodic announcements of presidential election results at the Bomas of Kenya, the national tallying centre.

Chairman Wafula Chebukati on Wednesday explained that the Court of Appeal had ruled that presidential election results announced at the polling station are final, and not subject to any alteration by the commission except by a court.

“The role of the national tallying centre is to verify that the winning candidate in presidential elections has obtained 50 per cent plus one votes and that the candidate has obtained at least 25 per cent of the votes in at least 24 counties,” Mr Chebukati said in Nairobi. 

Here is how the results will be relayed from the polling stations to Bomas.

 

A. Polling Station

After tallying and announcing results at the polling station, the presiding officer, in the presence of party agents, will:

• Type into the KIEMS tablets the results as captured in F34A.

• Scan F34A using KIEMS tablet.

• Confirm that the typed results and the results on the scanned form are accurate.

• Electronically transmit the results to the constituency tallying centre and the national tallying centre.

Form 34A shall be made available on an online portal.

B. Constituency Tallying Centre

At the constituency centre, the returning officer:

• Receives scanned Form 34A.

• Collates results from Form 34A and prepares Form 34B.

• Announces results of the presidential election in that constituency.

• Scans F34B and sends it to the National Tallying Centre.

The returning officer will also receive physical copies of Form 34As from polling stations and together with Form 34B deliver them to the national tallying centre for archiving.

C. National Tallying Centre

The commission has set up the Bomas of Kenya as the National Tallying Centre.

In accordance with the decision of the Court of Appeal, the following processes will be undertaken:

• The scanned Form 34Bs from the constituency returning officers will be received by two designated officers.

• Form 34B will be authenticated by two designated officers. The authenticating officers, in the presence of chief agents for the candidates, authenticates the origin of the form.

• The authenticating officers serialise the received form and hand it over to the Collation Team. There will be six collation teams to serve the 47 counties.

• Collation Team generates relevant sections of F34C and hands it over to the Validation Team.

• The Validation Team verifies that the F34C is complete and accurate regarding the collation of the results from the 290 constituencies.

• The Validation Team hands over to the commission F34C that the chairman of the commission uses to declare the final results of presidential elections.

 

Mr Chebukati said the declaration of the presidential results will be based on the verification that the constitutional threshold has been obtained by the winning candidate.

“The commission also resolved to avail a dedicated link to the media for purposes of relaying the results as received from the polling stations across the country,” the IEBC chief said.

The commission will also display the results as received from polling stations in all the tallying centres, also available on a web portal, Mr Chebukati said.