IIEC sets conditions for football elections

By OMULO OKOTH

The much-awaited football elections will only take place once conditions set by the electoral body are fully complied with.Top on the list is that candidates will respect the outcome and not resort to court battles thereafter.

The other is the cleaning of voters’ register, funding and availability of polling stations.

A senior Government official, talking from a position of authority, but who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the elections, confirmed the financial threshold was as good as met.

Candidates for the forthcoming football elections Hussein Mohammed, Twaha Mbarak and Sammy Sholei during the demonstration pressing for the poll date, [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

World football ruling body, Fifa, gave Sh10 million. The Government is supposed to give the other half, which was by Friday evening virtually ready.

The electoral budget was set at Sh17 million, but the Sh3 million are for publicity and Press advertisements. The official also confirmed that polling stations have all been identified and will be advertised alongside the final list of candidates.

"The sore thumbs are the voters’ register and the memorandum of understanding," said the official.The register must be agreed upon by all candidates and inspected before the elections. Then the MoU binding Kenya Football Federation (KFF) and Football Kenya Limited (FKL) that they will cease to exist after the poll and to recognise the new body is paramount for the electoral body.

"The IIEC has given their conditions to us and we are working on what is under our ambit. No one will push them to hold these elections because they have their programmes and procedures. But the two must be harmonised and agreed upon by KFF, FKL and the IEB first," said the official.

"The IIEC would like to conduct a credible elections and the voters’ register must be clean, devoid of reports currently being published of controversies in some branches," he said.

"It is neither the Government’s nor Fifa’s obligation to conduct football elections. But because of the rotten state of football administration here, we have decided to come in," he said."There was the issue of budget, but we have met that threshhold," he said. He also assured that no candidate will be barred, however culpable some are with regards to the past problems that have rocked the sport.

"It is incumbent upon the Kenyan football lovers, if they are intelligent and concerned with the sport they love, to sort that out. The minister would have sent those perceived to have messed up football packing, but for his respect of due process, he has given that mandate to the clubs to sort it out," he said.

"Unraveling the labyrinth of confusion, corruption and maladministration has been a cause of great concern to the minister. He is just fed up and he told Parliament as much," said the official.

He could not put a timeline to the elections date, but said the first half of October could be ideal.