Parties must invest heavily in fair nominations

Jubilee Party’s grand launch with all the might, the blitz and colour and which has apparently chased the Opposition out of town is the clearest indication it will not be business as usual in the political arena.

Jubilee Party’s journey for a stab at a second term has begun in earnest and the size of this house reminds me of the saying that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Jubilee has made a historic attempt at breaking the yoke of tribal political outfits that have been synonymous with our political parties. This grand merger will come with its own challenges and it is only the pragmatism of how the party leadership will handle them that will make it a political power house that it has set out to be.

The envy being experienced over Jubilee’s new political masterstroke is because the big party is set to redefine the tenets of national unity, cohesion and inclusivity in the way national politics is played.

The new team that has been on a journey to amalgamate these parties has already demonstrated it has the capacity and goodwill to handle even the most intricate matters that revolve around political competition.

In this breath, I specifically cite party primaries as the make or break challenge that will define the new grand party as an example of how an emerging modern party in a rapidly growing democracy must operate.

In many Jubilee strongholds, party primaries will be the real election because in 2013, 98 per cent of candidates who won nominations on the president’s party went ahead to win the general election.

Jubilee party officials must, from the onset, desist from having preferred candidates, whatsoever. They must awaken to the reality that every person capable of mobilising votes is an asset and whoever wins must be regarded as a worth soldier.

The party must therefore invest heavily on the logistics and management of the primaries with an official policy that the voter must be accorded a free and fair environment to choose candidates while the contestants’ are given a level playing ground.

Gone should be the days aspirants miss their names on the nomination papers or have them altered drastically. Gone should be the days the nomination exercise starts after 2 pm in certain geographical zones. Gone should be the days cartons are used as ballot boxes.

Gone should be the days party officials mark and stuff ballot papers in favour of certain candidates. Gone should be the days violence by those who sense defeat is allowed to disrupt voting.

Gone should be the days an outright loser is declared winner only for the petition at the party to be rendered an exercise in futility. It must be a season when drastic measures are taken to guard the integrity of primaries.

Big parties must therefore treat primaries as their biggest headache. They must invest resources and human capacity to ensure only genuine winners carry the party’s flag.

Due to the many vested interests that will characterise the jostling for tickets, parties will have to devise elaborate reward systems for poll losers. This will particularly be useful in areas where rival parties are likely to field equally strong candidates.

There is need to inculcate in the minds of aspirants that their political lives do not end at the nomination stage. Those who will have put an appreciable show, as President Kenyatta said last week, could be considered to serve the party in other capacities.

The ban on party hopping must never be used to unfairly deny potential leaders an opportunity to serve the party at another level.

Indeed, it should be used to glue party teams together towards the election because in essence, the ultimate goal is to win the seat.

The era of high threshold for presidential election is here with us and every vote will have to be guarded and protected. It is unnecessary to open turf wars within our parties at the expense of fully utilising our synergies to mobilise support against our opponents.