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{
    "id": 685984,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/685984/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 217,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Simiyu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 141,
        "legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
        "slug": "david-eseli"
    },
    "content": "We also looked at the role of Commissioners because it was clear that what transpired with the current Commission was that roles were not well delineated between the Secretariat and Commissioners; such that if anything went wrong, the Commissioners had passed it to the Secretariat and vice versa. We were not able to apportion blame on either the Secretariat nor Commissioners. This Committee endeavoured to ensure that we put something in place to make sure that the roles of the Commissioners and that of the Secretariat are well demarcated to avoid conflict in future because it leads to a dysfunctional Commission. On the issue of the register, CORD’s position was that the register should be done away with and fresh registration of voters carried out while Jubilee’s position was that the current register is okay. After we negotiated in the Committee, we reached a compromise that the register be looked at a fresh by a reputable firm of auditors – these are people who have experience in auditing voter registers, and not just anybody auditing the voter register. In the process, the register will end up being clean and be as good as new. That was the compromise we reached. Regarding the elections, one of the things we realized was that Article 181 of the Constitution anticipated an election that is based on electronics. That was not surprising. We drafted the new Constitution after the Kriegler Report. This was one of the recommendations which informed the Constitution. Therefore, the Constitution anticipated the mode of elections to be electronic based. We are short of time and the least we can do is that we use the same electronics used in the last elections in the next general elections because we have experience in this. That is the BVR, the Electronic Voter Identification Device (EVID) and the electronic transmission of results. Those are the technologies we are familiar with. Subsequently, after the elections we anticipate all this to be integrated into one and electronics will be much more involved in future so that we have proper elections as anticipated by the Constitution. By this mode we expect to, at least, remove or minimise a problem which afflicts elections across Africa which is a disease called “ballot stuffing”. We hope that by the use of these gadgets and electronics we will accomplish that mission. The Jubilee team was very enthusiastic about the digital Government. We expect them to provide the funding to implement this without a problem. Once this Report is adopted, we have very strict timelines and the Committee is pleading with both Houses of Parliament to put in place a mechanism to oversee the implementation of these recommendations. If they are not given oversight, and are left in the hands of other people who might not know the genesis of these negotiations, we might lose the whole purpose. Therefore, the Committee recommended that this House puts in a mechanism to ensure that there is oversight of the implementation of these recommendations. At that time, the media as usual ran a funny story that the Committee wanted to perpetrate itself and continue working. This was further from the truth. We wanted the two Houses to ensure that they put a mechanism in place to ensure that this process is implemented properly and to the letter so, that we have free and fair elections. On the issue of Presidential Elections under Article 138(2) of the Constitution, it is very clear that where there are more than two presidential candidates, an election shall be held in each constituency. Therefore, each constituency is the basis of the elections of the President hence our recommendation on how to transmit the results of the presidential election."
}