Like your spouses, you choose agents you trust, IEBC advocate says
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) advocate Erick Gumbo has submitted to the Supreme Court that the presidential candidates and others were at liberty to choose the agents to represent them at polling stations and tallying centers.
The advocate said that no one was forced to pick a certain agent, and that just like spouses, the candidates would go for the agents who they trust most to perform the task.
“Because agents are like our spouses, you chose your own, you chose the one you trust. Nobody imposes an agent on you. If you chose one you don’t trust, then you can’t blame anyone,” Gumbo said.
Also read: Supreme Court: IEBC explains variation of figures from KIEMS kit
He was responding to the allegation in the petition filed by Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya Coalition, stating that Forms 34As were interfered with.
According to the advocate, Form 34A has eight security features, which prevents any unauthorised person from tampering with the final results that has been entered.
He also submitted that the forms that Azimio claims did not match with the final tally from the electoral commission could have been forged to support their case.
Also read: Watch: A sweaty affair as ‘Pinky pinky ponky!’ song light up Supreme Court
In his submission, Gumo also stated that some of the figures that might have been used by the petitioner could have been cooked figures from agents who did not understand their job.
“If you chose one who does not understand why you assign them that responsibility, again you can’t possibly blame anyone.”
According to the advocate, some agents failed to perform their duties as per the law, a move that has led to recount and scrutiny of votes from 15 polling stations.
Also read: Watch: Supreme Court satisfied with IEBC compliance to server access
“If you failed to present an agent, would it appropriate to then come and burden the subsequent process through applications such as what we are seeing for scrutiny, because the law contemplates that that agent should be able to point to you the fact that there is a problem in a particular primary school, go there. Don’t ask for the entire constituency, don’t ask for the entire county.”
According to the advocate, there is a need to sanctify the place of agents in our elections henceforth.
This comes even as the technical team from the Supreme Court supervised the recount of the votes from the 15 polling stations in presence of agents from the parties involved. The court said that it will issue a comprehensive report regarding the recount and scrutiny process later.
Also read: Ida pens message of encouragement to Raila as Supreme Court case begins