IEBC told to reject illegal nominees

By Caroline Rwenji

Election observers want commission to revoke names submitted by parties after deadline

A group of election observers have urged the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to reject party nominees who got the tickets illegally.

The Institute for Education in Democracy (IED), which is part of the Elections Observation Group, wants the IEBC to scrutinise the list of nominees and weed out names presented after the deadline.

“The IEBC should make it clear to political parties that it will not accept any party list for the purpose of elections through proportional representation, which does not strictly meet the requirements of the Constitution,” IED chairperson Jane Ogot said.

She also challenged the office of Registrar of Political Parties, to offer guidance to parties and act accordingly to stem any actions that may undermine free and fair elections.

In a report on the recent party nominations and the dispute resolution mechanisms, the election observers urged politicians to preach peace and prevent electoral conflict.

“Political parties and politicians should focus their energies in consolidating peace, managing electoral conflicts and creating an enabling environment to ensure peaceful, credible, free and fair elections. They should also respect the constitutional authority of IEBC and refrain from intimidation,” she said.

Ogot also urged Kenyans to respect the authority of IEBC and maintain peace.

The report termed the party nominations below acceptable standards.

“The party nominations were not transparent and did not reflect the wishes of the public,” the report said.

Disputes

“In many instances, the nominations were shambolic and characterised by violence and other malpractices,” said Ogot. She also noted the nominations were conducted irregularly and illegally, because they went beyond the stipulated deadline.

Ogot accused parties of using underhand means to register members leading to questionable membership registers.

She noted that disputes being resolved by tribunals arose from the ‘sham’ nominations.

Ogot said the parties’ tribunals were also ineffective since the nominations disputes resolution committee ended up with more than 200 cases. She however, expressed optimism that IEBC would deliver a fair ruling on the nomination disputes.