Mvita MP and Shahbal: Who will blink first in governor's contest?

The fight for the ODM ticket in the Mombasa governor’s race remains a battle of nerves, and it is not yet clear who will blink first.

Neither Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir nor businessman Suleiman Shahbal is ready for consensus.

In separate interviews, Mr Nassir and Mr Shahbal appeared to stick to their guns, with the businessman insisting ODM must use universal suffrage in its nominations.

On Saturday, ODM’s National Election Board postponed the party’s primaries in Mombasa and Kilifi to give room for consultation and consensus-building.

Mr Nassir, in an interview on February 26, said the ODM National Delegates Conference (NDC) had ratified the use of opinion polls as the second option for selecting candidates, if consensus failed, and the party should stick to it.

In a rejoinder, Mr Shahbal said: “Cooked opinion polls are the new method being used by ODM bigwigs to rig the nominations. Mombasa people will reject those schemes.”

He warned that shambolic ODM nominations would adversely affect Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s performance at the Coast in the August 9 election.

“You cannot sit in a boardroom and decide who runs and who does not. Aspirants have campaigned for the past three years because they have a burning desire to change the county even at the ward levels. This cannot work,” said Mr Shahbal.

However, he said he would agree to consensus-building based on serious and open talks, but not to cooked opinion polls with numbers that are statistically impossible.

“Let wananchi decide and not party bigwigs. In the past, primaries were rigged by stuffing boxes but it appears someone has found a sophisticated way of imposing candidates on people,” he said.

However, Mr Nassir said aspirants opposed to opinion polls were insincere, adding that they did not raise any objection when the method was proposed and ratified during the party NDC.

“We know individuals who want to fund nominations because of selfish interests. Those opposed to opinion polls are just stubborn,” he said.

According to him, ODM was aware of planned chaos during the primaries, citing the February 20 chaotic rally at Tononoka grounds as a tell-tale sign of what lay ahead.

“On that day I was pelted with stones and hit by a bottle of water. It was clear that some people had resolved that violence was the way to go,” he said.

Wiper party’s candidate for the Mombasa governor seat, Kisauni MP Ali Mbogo, said Mr Nassir and Mr Shahbal believe that ODM ticket will guarantee them a win during the August 9 polls.

“That is why for them the ODM ticket is a matter of life and death. They will be shocked like the 2017 ODM candidate in Kisauni was,” said Mr Mbogo.

In 2017, Mr Mbogo ran on a Wiper ticket in Kisauni and beat Mr Rashid Bezimba of ODM.

This could be a crucial week for Mr Shahbal, whose options appear to narrow after two polls commissioned by ODM showed that Mr Nassir was ahead of him.

Mr Shahbal has fought many political battles. After the 2013 polls, he through proxies challenged Governor Hassan Joho’s win and academic papers in a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Mr Joho won.