Hundreds of politicians, including some presidential aspirants, may be barred from running for Parliament this year should the Electoral Commission of Kenya make good its threat to block candidates from parties that fail to comply with their own nomination rules.
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| Ms Eunice Kiriro Msagha, a clerk with ECK (left) registers voters in Kilifi in the recently concluded registration drive. The polls team has laid down tough new rules to govern nominations. Parties that fail to meet their own internal regulations will have their candidates locked out of the next General Election. Photo/FILE |
ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu has written to all the registered political parties, warning them that they must set and comply with nomination rules, in a move that is intended to help restore order among the chaotic and unregulated organisations. He says the parties must publish the rules and strictly adhere to them.
In one of the tough proposed measures, returning officers have been instructed to reject any candidates who fail to demonstrate that their parties carried out proper nominations.
Welcomed move
ODM and Narc-Kenya welcomed the move by the ECK.
Narc-Kenya executive director Sande Oyolo said the party had already set rules on nominations.
“We have already pre-empted them,” Mr Oyolo said in a telephone conversation with the Nation.
Mr Oyolo said the party had mandated Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi to work on nomination rules for the December elections.
On his part, ODM secretary-general Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o said the rules were not knew.
“That has always been the case since the 1992 elections,” Prof Nyong’o said.
He said ODM would adhere to the rules and cautioned against some ECK officials using the rules to wrongly punish some candidates.
The commission has drawn up a raft of rules to be followed by political parties in naming their candidates to comply with the law. They are as follows:
- Parties must have written rules or regulations governing nominations;
- Registered political parties should send their nomination rules or regulations to the ECK;
- The nominations must adhere to these rules;
- ECK officials will scrutinise the process to ensure that parties and candidates adhered fully to the rules and regulations before giving them nomination certificates;
- Parties which fail to follow the proper procedure will have their candidates barred from participating in elections.
If effected, the conditions could spell doom for briefcase political parties, whose only requirement before candidates are nominated is the payment of fees.ECK records
The situation is messy in the 150 political parties in the ECK records.
With four months to the next General Election, it is not clear, for instance, on which party President Kibaki will seek re-election to his second and final five-year term. At least three political parties, Democratic Party (DP) of Kenya, Narc and Narc Kenya are claiming that he is their man.
And on the Opposition side, the split in the Orange Democratic Movement has created an interesting field, with Lang’ata MP Raila Odinga and his Mwingi North counterpart, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, leading each faction.
Both are planning their separate National Delegates Conferences to name their candidates to run against President Kibaki without even holding grassroots elections. Controversy has also arisen over who has a right to control the delegates, whom both camps are claiming as their own.
Registered parties
The new rules are contained in letters to the secretaries-general and party leaders of all the registered political parties. Mr Kivuitu said all the parties must follow their nomination procedures as spelt our in their constitutions.
He put on notice parties that do not have nomination rules, urging them to formulate and forward the same to his office.
“In any case ECK will not recognise any alleged candidates from a registered political party unless such a party had previously supplied the ECK with a copy of rules and regulations for candidate nominations through its chairman,” the memo signed by Mr Kivuitu read in part.
Invoking the provision of Section 123 (1) of the constitution of Kenya and Section 17 of the National Assembly and Presidential Elections Act (Cap 7), Kivuitu said: “The ECK promises to adhere strictly with these laws when time comes.”
The law recognises a political party as one which is duly registered and which has complied with the requirements or rules of nominating candidates for the National Assembly.
Reiterating that it is not enough for a political party to be merely registered, the ECK chairman ruled that a party must have rules or regulations for the nomination of its candidates to Parliament.
“And these rules and regulations must comply with a law made by Parliament for the purpose,” said Mr Kivuitu.
And that law is the one identified as Section 17 of national Assembly and Presidential Elections Act (Cap 7). Section 17 (1) of this Act states: “A person shall be deemed to be nominated by a political party for election as a member of the National Assembly for purpose of paragraph (d) of section 34 of the constitution if one is selected in the manner provided for in the constitution or rules of the political party concerned relating to members of that party who wish to contest Parliamentary elections and subject to subsection (4), the party certifies the selection to the Electoral Commission.”
Paragraph (d) of Section 34 of the constitution referred to is that provision which makes it mandatory for a candidate to the National Assembly to be nominated by a political party for the elections.
Mr Kivuitu extended the net to include the nominations for the election of councillors.
“On the strength of the provisions of Section 58 (2) of the Local Government Act, these constitutional and legislative provisions apply with equal force to the nomination of candidates for Local Government elections,” read the terse statement.
Running into trouble
This effectively means that all registered political parties must do a reality check to establish whether they are within the stipulated guidelines before running into trouble.
This is an early warning to the political parties, most of which are just about to start nominating their with presidential, parliamentary and civic candidates.
Commenting on the ECK directive, Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation chairperson Rukia Subow told the Nation in Nairobi that in the past, party nominations “have been largely fraudulent and have largely favoured men”.
Ms Rukia said: “People would come to a nomination station and cause havoc, carry away all the nomination documents and later announce their favourite candidates as the winners from the party’s headquarters. This has to stop.” |
