The Sunday Mail
Ambassador Simbi Mubako
I have just come back to Zimbabwe from Kenya where I was leading the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Election Observer Mission.
Our team comprised observers from 10 Comesa member states and the Secretariat.
I was also Comesa team leader during the 2013 poll which President Uhuru Kenyatta won; so that experience acquainted me with Kenya’s systems. In 2013, President Uhuru Kenyatta won 800 000 votes over his arch-rival, Mr Raila Odinga, who was again the main opposition presidential candidate in the August 8, 2017 poll.
This year’s issues were pretty much the same as last time, with the shibboleth being what programme of action would appeal to tribal and political groups.
Traditionally, Kenya’s elections are ethnicity based. It was, however, different this time around as people did not simply vote along ethnic lines. Some groups purportedly loyal to President Kenyatta voted for Mr Odinga, while those perceived as opposition loyalists rooted for the eventual winner.
So, this election showed a new trend of people crossing the floor.
President Kenyatta’s campaign was based on Kenya’s economic success: a growth rate of over 5 percent and major infrastructural projects such as construction of a new railway line from Mombasa to Nairobi and establishment of “super highways”.
Eight candidates vied for the presidency, and President Kenyatta won by 1,4 million votes. As observers, we were unanimous in our view that the elections were free and fair.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki headed the African Union observer team while the Commonwealth team had Ghana’s ex-president John Dramani Mahama as its leader. Other observer missions included Ecowas, the European Union, the Jimmy Carter Foundation and hundreds of local and foreign groups.
There were objections by the opposition coalition, National Super Alliance, led by Mr Odinga. Nasa asked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to rescind the election result and then announce that the alliance had won.
However, observers supported the IEBC’s announcement as we were satisfied that the election had been free and fair. Our advice to Mr Odinga and Nasa was to either accept the result or challenge it in court.
The opposition alleged that the (electoral) system had been hacked. Nevertheless, our position was that the system was not hacked as we did not encounter any flaws for us to come to such a conclusion. There had been an attempt to hack the system, but that attempt was unsuccessful.
All observer groups were, therefore, unanimous that Nasa should either accept the election result or go to court. The lesson other African political parties should learn from the Kenya election is to accept election results, particularly when all observer missions say the polls were free and fair.
They should understand that there is always a winner and a loser, so parties should be prepared to accept the outcome. I believe the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission can take important lessons from Kenya’s electoral process.
According to the IEBC chair, this was the first time Kenya had successfully deployed the Integrated Election Management System nationally to facilitate voter and candidate registration, voter verification and transmission of results.
The chair said: “The new system integrated the existing biometric voter registration, biometric voter identification, electronic results transmission, political party and candidate registration systems.
“Despite a few technical hitches in its usage, we successfully managed to adopt new innovative ways of integrating voter identification and transmission of results. This is something we have never done as a Commission in the Republic of Kenya.”
So, BVR worked remarkably well in Kenya, and Zimbabwe can take important lessons from it. Our mission observed that Kenya’s Integrated Electoral Management System readers worked efficiently and effectively in identifying voter particulars.
The Comesa mission also observed isolated instances where the readers could not identify fingerprints, especially of the elderly.
In such instances, alternative prescribed processes were used, but this slowed down voting processes.
In addition, I was impressed by the foolproof election process. Results were available at each polling station. There were thousands of polling stations, and each polling station was allowed a maximum of 700 voters.
This eliminated queues and there was no pressure at all on voters. Vote-counting was done smoothly because of the high number of polling stations. All parties were present during counting and transmission of results from the polling station to the polling centre.
All votes were filled on a form they called 34-A. These 34-A forms were then sent to the polling centre, collated into 34-B forms and transmitted to the national centre.
It was, therefore, difficult to fault Kenya’s system. That is why observers reiterated the position that the process was free and fair. The Integrated Election Management System for registering and identifying voters as well as verifying and relaying results is one of the best election practices we noted.
A short messaging service was used to verify voter registration status and polling stations.
Ambassador Simbi Mubako is Zimbabwe’s first post-Independence Justice Minister and a respected academic. He shared these views with The Sunday Mail’s Chief Reporter Kuda Bwititi in Harare on August 17, 2017
