Kenya orders electronic vote register for March polls

NAIROBI Aug 3 (Reuters) - Kenya's cabinet on Friday ordered the election commission to introduce an electronic register of voters, a day after the organisation said it had dropped plans to acquire the technology, raising fears of election fraud.

Presidential and parliamentary elections on March 4, 2013 will be the first since a disputed poll in 2007 triggered ethnic violence in which more than 1,200 people were killed. It will also be the first since Kenya adopted a new constitution.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had planned to acquire biometric voter registration technology to replace a manual system that was discredited in 2007 when ballot boxes were found to contain the votes of people who had not registered or were dead.

But the IEBC said it had abandoned the plan after the tendering process descended into acrimony.

"Cabinet today resolved to support the biometric voter registration system ... to help build public confidence in the electoral system ahead of the general elections," a statement issued by the presidency on Friday said.

(Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Janet Lawrence)