THE CEC has finally broken his long standing silence to the media to opine that the recent High Court directive, that the preparation of a fresh voter list be based on the existing voter list, is not binding upon him. This categorically dismissive statement coming from a sitting judge is indeed shocking.

Are we to understand that the CEC believes that the ruling is of no importance to him and is fit to be ignored at will. We must ask whether this is the respect that one expects the judiciary to be shown by one of its peers!

The CEC has taken his intransigence and stubbornness on this issue to absurd lengths. But he has not felt obliged to explain to the people the rationale behind his decision to go for a fresh voter list rather than prepare one based on the existent electoral roll.

The latest news from the EC is that the date for finishing enumeration has been pushed back by some three weeks to February 20, with the CEC virtually admitting that there is currently at least a 10 percent plus rate of exclusion of legitimate voters. The margin of error is too large even for him to ignore.

This shows the slipshod and confused way in which the whole process has been conducted. The fallout from all this mismanagement is plain to see. The entire process has been upset, the credibility of the CEC is in shreds, and the entire election preparations are now being called into question.

The credibility of the CEC has sunk so low that the public even had doubts as to the genuineness of his recent illness, that he had to go to extraordinary lengths to allay.

The CEC must be more sensitive to how his actions are being perceived by the general public and strive to ensure that the elections themselves are beyond reproach.

The CEC's credibility has become so compromised that today many have begun questioning whether he is any longer capable of presiding over a generally acceptable election. The CEC's primary concern now must be to act and to conduct the election preparations in such a manner as to regain the people's trust.

To this end, he clearly needs to end his diffidence to meet the press which could only add to the negative impression of a lack of transparency in the conduct of EC affairs by him. He must give the press the access it needs to inform the public about the progress of electoral preparations.