• + Comment now
• Print
• Email
• Tweet
• Reset

Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will hold a mock election on February 18th, Kenya's Capital FM reported Sunday (February 10th).

"We have set aside a national day on the February 18th so the whole nation will be taken through a simulation of the voting procedure including marking the ballot and the transmission of results," said IEBC officer Nixon Ng'ang'a.

Ng'ang'a said the exercise would be held in one polling station in each of the country's 1,450 wards to educate voters and limit spoiled votes in the March 4th general election.

"We witnessed 218,000 rejected ballot papers in 2010 in the referendum," he said. "Our fear is that if we do not conduct very elaborate voter education specifically on how to mark the ballot paper, then with the challenge of the expanded election that the new constitution poses, we would probably magnify the problem of rejected ballots."

The new voting process involves six colour-coded ballots, one for each elected position: president, senator, county governor, members of parliament, and civic ward and women county representatives.

In addition, one man and one woman will be assigned to each ward to reach citizens who cannot make it to the mock polling stations.