IEBC revealed what happens to unutilized ballot papers and how they are accounted for during any given election.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati through his lawyer George Murugu, told the apex court that unutilized ballot papers are primarily treated as rejected votes and are not counted for purposes of declaring results at a polling station.
“Regulation 69 of the general election regulations provides that a voter will be issued with ballot papers for all elections in a multiple election. The voter is expected to cast his votes in respect of all the elections and section 69 (3) makes it an offence for a person to knowingly fail to place his or her ballot paper issued to him inside a ballot box,” Murugu told the court.
Moreover, IEBC’s presiding officer is then required by the commission’s regulations to document all cases of unutilized or rejected ballot papers.
Likewise, regulation 78 (3) states that the presiding officer is then put under obligation to record in Form 41, the rejection for each ballot.
Murugu further stated that after the unutilized ballot papers are recorded, they are sealed in an inviolable envelope, placed in a ballot box and forwarded to the commission.
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“Regulation 81(b) then provides that rejected ballots such as the unutilized ballots are sealed in a tamper proof envelope and placed in a ballot box. That is how they are accounted for,” Murugu said.