ODM nominations are illegal IEBC declares

The opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has suffered a major setback after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared any party primaries conducted before April 13 illegal.

IEBC chair, Wafula Chebukati, says that no political party should conduct its primaries before the set timelines as the poll body needs to gazette the names of contestants for various positions.

ODM had scheduled its primaries to run from Saturday, April 8 with Bungoma and Busia counties set to conduct their nominations Saturday.

IEBC maintains that political parties must conduct the nominations between April 13 and 26.

“Political Parties intending to present candidates shall conduct primaries between April 13 and 26, 2017 and submit their list of nominees selected to contest for the elections to the Commission on or before May 10, 2017,” read the IEBC statement in part.

“In addition, Parties who directly select their nominees for election shall submit the list of persons selected to contest in the election on or before May 10, 2017.”

The poll body says that it has the mandate to publish the names of persons contesting in party primaries.

“Section 31 (2) (c) of the Election Act requires the Commission to publish the names of persons contesting in a party primary and the date of the party primary within seven days of the receipt of the names of the party candidates,” added IEBC.

“The deadline for submitting the said names was April 5, 2017. The Commission is in the process of publishing the names received from the political parties in the Gazette in accordance with the law.”

IEBC further directed the parties to proceed with their primaries in accordance with the Commission’s timelines once the candidates have been published in the Kenya Gazette.