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{
    "id": 52342,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/52342/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 291,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ms. Karua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 166,
        "legal_name": "Martha Wangari Karua",
        "slug": "martha-karua"
    },
    "content": "The Minister said that we will have eight elections. In actual fact, we will be electing six people because, for the Governor and his or her running mate, the vote will be one. For the President and his or her running mate, the vote will be one. So, those are six elections. I was trying to count. Having six people elected, even if each person takes a minute, it means that a voter will take not less than six minutes in the polling booth. If you count the working day, you will realise that our polling stations will not be able to take more than 200-250 people. Our polling stations have about 700 people on an average. So, this will be an impossible election. I am very happy to see that in this Bill, they are talking of having appropriate technology. Unless we can vote and tally the votes electronically, electing six people on one day will be mission impossible. These are the things we must start looking out for. Even tallying of the votes will be a huge task because you cannot limit the number of candidates per election. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, can you imagine that in the last elections, I was opposed by 12 people? I was the thirteenth candidate. I have six wards in my constituency, which had 64 candidates. In total, we were 77 candidates. Can you imagine tallying votes for all those candidates? We are talking of some places in this country which have more candidates. This needs a lot of careful thought. It is unfortunate that there are wrangles within the relevant Departmental Committee, which has up to now done a sterling job on many Acts. I am calling upon the Chairman of the Committee on Implementation of the Constitution, which is the closest Committee to this Bill, to take up this role because this matter is very serious. Amendments by an individual or two will not simply do. Could this Committee take up this role, so that we can have appropriate amendments at the Committee Stage, which will have been well thought out by the majority of its Members? That is not to rule out individual amendments, but I am saying that there is a lot of work we need to do here. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have seen, in Clause 7(2) of this Bill, a proposal that the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson of the current Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) automatically come in. I am afraid that this proposal is against the spirit of the Constitution. We want competitiveness."
}