Media regulations for March 7th

Josephine Tamai

Earlier today Tamai met with stakeholders and the media setting down guidelines for coverage. Tamai says that tallying of votes will take place at the same time in the different constituencies to expedite the results. At least three thousand public officers will be working on the double elections.

Jose Sanchez

“How many registered voters are there and how long do you expect these elections to take place through the early morning?”

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer

“In terms of General elections, the total number of registered voters is a hundred and seventy-eight thousand and fifty four. And in terms of municipal, it’s ninety-seven thousand, nine hundred and seventy-nine voters. We expect that counting should be completed before midnight for both elections. What we are doing this time around and especially for municipal because of the election that because of the number of candidates that are running, it is a very long process. So we are allowing more boxes to be counted at the same time to ensure that the results are out a little faster this time around. We’re requesting that in the polling areas, the media will not go allowed to go beyond the hundred yards line—that still maintains. In terms of counting, we will allow the media to go a little bit further in within the hundred yards line but still not in the classrooms where counting are actually taking place. For the municipal elections, the media will be allowed to go into the tally station with the returning officer only.”

Jose Sanchez

“When it comes to actually giving out the information to the public, who will be doing that?  Is there a set time and place for all of that?”

Josephine Tamai

“Well the retuning officers will be the ones who will be out there. So as soon as they have completed passing the information to the elections and boundaries department, they are free to go out and give interviews or the figures to the media because at the end of the day we want the information to be out there.”

Jose Sanchez

“Now when it comes to the polling stations, who can actually be in the station and what will they be doing?”

Josephine Tamai

“In the polling stations, the only persons that are allowed are firstly the voters, we also have the elections officers, the presiding officer, the poll clerks, you have a returning officer who heads that team along with an election clerk. In the rooms, you also have the political agents; each party is allowed to have agents also in the room. We will be having international observers so again they will be allowed to visit the polling and counting stations to see how elections are conducted. Within the hundred yards line, the general public is aware that no campaigning can be happening within that boundary.”

Tamai also says that voters can wear whatever they choose inside polling stations. Scrutinizers, however, can wear the colors of their political party but not with party slogans.