KICTANet Lauds IEBC For Open Portal

The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), a multistakeholder think tank for ICT policy and regulation, has lauded the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for putting up an open portal for the presidential results forms 34A.

KICTANet had deployed 90 observers in 21 counties to observe the tech component of the just concluded Kenyan general elections. The observers focused on tech preparedness, the voting process, transmission, and post-election processes.

“KICTANet appreciates the IEBC for demonstrating good intentions and furnished an open portal for presidential results forms 34A, where anyone can access them. We do not expect the complaint of ‘open servers’ as they are now publicly available,” the Lobby group said in a report seen by CIO Africa.

It also commended the IEBC for the high success rate in the use of KIEMs for voter identification, ensuring the stability of servers throughout the process and successful transmission of results from the polling stations to the national tallying centre.

“The IEBC was adequately prepared in case of network challenges. There’s great network coverage across the countries except for very few counties in the coastal region. More than 90 per cent of form 34As were transmitted 25 hours after closing and counting of polls. The internet across the country worked well, and there was no internet shutdown or any other forms of network interference,” it said.

However, the Think Tank noted that “The only tech/automated aspects have been voter identification and the open portal for the results”. They asked the IEBC to automate other functions including voting and tallying.

“IEBC should explore a completely tech-enabled election. This would hasten the tallying process and lessen the anxiety and mistrust around results,” it said.

It further called on the Commission to share all forms of electoral positions in an open portal to decentralize focus from the presidential results.

KICTANet also recommended to the electoral body to avail to observers, political parties and generally to the public, an online portal (akin to the online 34A forms) the metadata of the Kiems kits that show the exact turnout at each polling station, opening and closing times, voter identification among others.

They asked the IEBC to allow tech observers access to the backend to be able to tell if the system is free of manipulation.

To avoid misinformation that was shared on social media platforms, KICTANet recommended that the IEBC leverage on ICTs to provide a single point of verified information and reduce the public information gap.