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{
    "id": 1480951,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1480951/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 184,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Thangwá",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you very much, Madam Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Elections Offences (Amendment) (No.2) Bill (Senate Bills No.28 of 2024). I support this Bill because it is adressing issues that some of us have gone through. Of course, we would want it to be amended, so that we can seal the loopholes. As many have said, the Bill is supposed to cure the unreasonable delays in announcement of election results. Although it is talking about the general election, I remember there was a delay in announcement of results of party nominations in 2017 in Kiambu County. The results of the governor and women representative were announced, but the results of the senator had to take about three days. That was the period where the returning officers were cooking the results. If this law was to be applied in the political parties when doing their nominations, it can cure a lot of irregularities that arise. The law is also talking about returning officers who tally results of unguarded polling stations. It has also been discussed that no one should interfere with the results, whether it is the returning officer or any other person. Looking at this law and what it is trying to cure, we are going to bring more amendments to it. It has been said here that the election is a process. We do not want to just look at the issue of counting the votes, tallying and announcing the results. We need to look at the process itself from the campaign period. I have a Bill that is coming. I will see whether it can fit as an amendment in the amendment Bill that has been moved here. My Bill is called the Anti-Campaign Lies Law. What am I talking about? There has been many lies against candidates when people are trying to campaign. They lie to the voter, who will not vote according to the way they understand their candidate, but how they were lied to. The Anti-Campaign Lies Law also talks about lying on promises, policies and manifestos. This is something that we need to look at as a Parliament. That we should not allow people to stand and lie to the voter because they make decisions based on what they have been told, yet once someone gets in office, they change. This is an amendment that we need to bring into this law. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}