OKIYA

Well, another way from the elections. Another petition has been lodged at the High Court accusing the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission of interfering with presidential results at the National Tallying Centre. Vosier Senator Okia Omtata is asking the Court to declare the centre unconstitutional, claiming it undermines transparent and fair elections. Omtata argues that the results announced at the constituency level should be final with no retelling or extra layer of verification. Antivis Labansheban reports on Senator Omtata's petition. Vosier Senator Okia Omtata is asking the Court to declare that presidential results announced at constituency level as a matter of finality and abolish the National Tallying Centre. According to Omtata's interpretation of Article 86 of the Constitution, the polling station results declared by the presiding officer after counting votes are final. But the time sees after this there should be no more tallying and verification of results at county or national levels, just computation of the constituency tallys and declaration of the winners. The petitioner also challenges Section 39 of the Elections Act and Regulation 83-2 of the Elections Regulation, Legal Notice 128 of 2012, which they interpret to establish a National Tallying Centre. Omtata wants the Court to declare this act and consider include the IEBC chairperson has no power to retali or to verify results and can only collate and declare the winner. The IEBC must publish results immediately in each constituency via public notice boards and the media and not only online. The media and public must be free to report constituency results as soon as declared. According to the petitioner, Article 138 Sub-Article 10 confines the chairperson's role to clerical function, aggregating constituency results and announcing the winner. In the 2022 Supreme Court petition, Odinga and 16 others versus Ruto and 10 others, the Court clarified the role of the IEBC chairperson. It ruled that the power to verify entirely presidential election results does not rest solely with the chairperson but with the commission as a whole. The chairperson, the Court emphasised, declares the results as a delegate of the constitution, not on their own, as the judgement puts it, this power vests only as a delegate of the commission. The Supreme Court relied heavily on the Maenakiai Court of Appeal decision upheld by the Supreme Court in 2017, which established that results declared at the polling station are final and cannot be altered by the constituency returning officer or the national returning officer, the chairperson. The declaration at the National Telling Centre is essentially a confirmation of the results received from the lower levels. Omtata's petition mirrors another file by the United Opposition, which seeks a court determination on how presidential results should be handled. That case is scheduled for hearing on December 16, 2025. The petitioner holds, if successful, this could overhaul presidential election, making it transparent, decentralized and free from the Bomas drama. Laban Shaban, NTV, Nairobi.