Copied. What is an electoral calendar? As we prepare for the 2014 Tripartite Elections whereby voters will elect a Ward Councilor, an MP and the State President, there is lot of technical jargon that is being thrown into public realm and one of them is “electoral calendar”. But what is an electoral calendar? Taking the literal meaning of the two words, the meaning is easy to get and literary that is what it is. An electoral calendar is a sequence of events showing activities for an election showing the timing and duration of all activities. What determines what goes into an electoral calendar? There is a shift in paradigm whereby elections are not treated as an event but a cycle with three phases: pre-electoral, electoral period and post-electoral. An electoral calendar consists of activities that are carried out in the electoral period and these include: · Demarcation: This is whereby the Commission reviews boundaries of wards and constituencies basing on the principles of population density, geographical features and other factors that are stipulated in the constitution. The main aim is to ensure that there is almost equal representation of the population. · Registration: The Commission registers those who have fulfilled the requirements of the law so that they are eligible to register. As for 2014 Tripartite Elections everyone will have to register in their ward regardless of whether they were registered before or not. · Nomination: This is the stage whereby eligible contestants express their intention to the Commission to run for an office. The process is that they collect nomination forms from constituency returning office, the District Commissioner’s office and the MEC head office, especially for the Presidency. These forms have to be submitted back at a set date together with relevant documents and a nomination fee as determined by the Commission from the offices they were collected. · Official Campaign Period: The Official campaign period runs for 60 calendar days and end 48 hours before start of polling. This is the period candidates who have been successful with their nominations, go out to sell themselves to the electorate. · Polling: This is when registered voters go to vote for candidates of their choice at the centre where they registered. For 2014 Tripartite Elections, the electorate will vote for a ward councillor, a Member of Parliament and the State President. · Determination and Announcement of Results: After poling the results are counted at the same polling centre then transmitted to the tally centre. After all results are counted they are presented to the Commissioners who determine and announce the winner of the polls. · Complaints handling and litigation: After results announcements there can be complaints which have to be resolved by the Commission. In some cases they do end up in the courts depending on their nature and gravity. There are other activities that take place in the electoral period apart from the major ones cited above. These include civic and voter education which runs through all the stages, procurement of materials and equipment, review of nomination forms, ballot paper and voters’ roll printing and recruitment and training of various staff depending on the stage of the electoral calendar. After this, there is the post-electoral period whereby the Commission and its stakeholders can take time to reflect on the challenges that were faced in the elections period and come up with measures to address them. In some cases legal reviews are recommended to address legal gaps.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 08:17:13 +0000
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