Political party primaries complaints to be filed by 5pm today

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The electoral commission has established a committee to hear disputes arising from the recent political party primaries that were characterised by chaos and widespread claims of rigging.

However, those wishing to file their complaints with the Dispute Resolution Committee must do so not later than 5pm on Monday.

In a statement on Sunday, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said the committee will hear disputes emanating from controversies surrounding party nominations that were conducted in April.

The committee started hearing the disputes yesterday at the Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi, and will sit through Tuesday 13th, when it hopes to have heard and determined all disputes filed by the petitioners in the primaries.

“The commission will notify each complainant on their scheduled date for hearing,” he said.

Mr Chebukati said applicants can download the complaints forms from the IEBC website or collect them from its offices at Anniversary Towers.

All duly filled forms must be delivered at the legal registry at the Anniversary Towers or forwarded by email.

There were more than 300 cases filed before the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal after the primaries.

Chaotic nominations were the main cause of the high number of cases filed before the tribunal, the majority of them challenging the conduct of the polls, pointing to lack of internal democracy to govern management of nomination to elective seats.

Political parties failed to follow even the most basic rules and these irregularities were manifested in the cases brought before the tribunal.

But the numbers were also high because, even true losers who refused to accept the will of the people also wanted to have their day in court.

Source: Daily Nation