In the event of an election IEBC temporarily employs people who will help in carrying out the election . One of them is the presiding officer . The presiding officers are temporarily employed to oversee the elections in a polling station.
They are answerable to a Returning officer who is based at the constituency level. This means they are subordinate to the Returning officers.
Qualifications to be hired as a presiding officer include;
- One must be a Kenyan citizen legacy with possession if high integrity and non-partisan .
- One must hold a Degree or Diploma from a legally recognized institution.
- One must be computer literate that is posses computer skills.
- One must posses effective communication and good report writing skills.
- One must be in possession of data computing skills.
- One must have the ability of managing people , sensitive data and election materials .
- One must be able to work for long hours without supervision or minimal supervision.
- One must be able to abide by the fires of conduct of the IEBC .
- One must posses good character with no affiliation to political parties or any candidate who is contesting for a political seat .
- One must confirm his/her available during the entire period of elections.
- One must also be a resident of the constituency or ward in which the election is being held.
The roles of presiding officers include ;
- Ensuring of the good conduct of elections in the respective polling centre or tallying centre . This is as assigned by the returning officer.
- Counting , tallying and announcing of provisional results in the respective polling station and delivering the provisional results to the Returning Officer .
- Managing and overseeing all areas that he or she has responsibility of.
- Collection and ensuring the security of election materials in the polling station.
- The presiding officer is also responsible for the conduct of elections in the respective polling station.
- Overseeing effective management of the elections before ,during and after .
- They also have a role of assisting the training of polling and counting clerks .
- They also handle and duties given to them by the Returning officer.
- They also delegate duties to the Polling clerks .