NASA threatens to boycott August polls over presidential results

The National Super Alliance (NASA) will not participate in the August 8 General Election, if an early ruling stating that presidential election results announced at the constituency tallying centre is overturned.

The High Court of Kenya, through Justices Weldon Korir, Aggrey Muchelule and Chacha Mwita on Tuesday, April 4, 2017 ruled that presidential election results announced at the polling station and constituency levels will be final, a ruling the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has since contested.

NASA, through the Technical Committee Member and Machakos Senator, Johnston Muthama, now says that it is reading mischief in the move to seek to overturn the ruling, alleging that the electoral body is serving Jubilee’s interest at the expense of a free, fair and credible election.

“We, therefore, demand that IEBC respects the decision of the High Court and withdraw the appeal,” said Muthama while addressing the press at the Moi International Airport, Mombasa.

The opposition coalition has expressed fear in the manner the IEBC has been recruiting and deploying Constituency Returning Officers, demanding for a known criteria of the process as they are vital in overseeing presidential elections.

“We demand that IEBC adopt an open and transparent process of deploying electoral officers. The process should have open balloting where constituency coordinators are randomly picked and their constituencies selected,” added Muthama.

NASA is also demanding Electronic Voter Identification (EVID) kits be subjected to public inspection to confirm that they are suitable for the August polls.

The coalition wants the EVID to be used in the forthcoming voter verification exercise and also be deployed and distributed to all polling stations for purposes of supplementing the voter verification exercise.

The NASA faction was speaking after a strategic retreat to discuss its presidential campaigns on Tuesday, May 2 in Vipingo, Kilifi County.