At least 10 political parties risk being barred from participating in next year’s elections after they failed to comply with the requirements of the law on nomination rules.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati said out of the 82 parties that resubmitted their revised nomination rules to the commission for review, 72 are eligible for compliance certificates.
“From this review, 72 political parties were found to be compliant and will in the course of this week be issued with compliance certificates as guided by the provisions of Section 27 of the Elections Act,” Mr Chebukati said in a statement yesterday following a meeting with the parties at Maanzoni Lodge.
IEBC, he noted, will also contact the 10 parties that did not comply to advise them on the way forward. He did not, however, name the non-compliant outfits.
Initially, IEBC had rejected all the nomination rules filed by the parties citing failure to meet statutory requirements. Among the shortcomings was lack of clear guidelines on how to identify aspirants for nomination and formulation of the party list.
Some parties had no signatories for nomination certificates while others lacked codes of conduct to address electoral malpractices. Others had no clear provisions on the waiver for nomination fee for the special interest groups while others had no clear internal party dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve protests arising from primaries.
Party primaries are emotive exercises given that, in some regions, securing the ticket almost means a sure win at the polls.
The law requires political parties to submit nomination rules to IEBC at least six months before the nomination of candidates.
Mr Chebukati who addressed meeting between IEBC and the Political Parties Liaison Committee at Maanzoni Lodge in Machakos County yesterday, also emphasised on participation in harambees and donation of funds.
“The issue of fundraising by persons who wish to contest in the [polls] has attracted immense debate. I wish to clarify that, as governed by Section 26 of the Elections Act, the deadline for participation of aspirants in harambees was December 9, 2021.”
“It is noteworthy that the import of Section 26 is to prohibit an aspirant from donating funds either directly or through a proxy undoubtedly perceived as influencing a cause. Sub-section (2), however, creates an exception and allows aspirants or political parties only to hold harambees to raise funds for their own campaigns,” said Mr Chebukati.
“We implore on you to also reach out to Kenyans, especially the youth and encourage them to register as voters.”
“The right to register as voter is progressively being realised for Kenyans living outside Kenya and prisoners,” added Mr Chebukati. This, he said, is in addition to Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa which participated in 2017.
“[IEBC] plans to extend diaspora voter registration exercise to seven more countries—the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, South Sudan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Germany. [IEBC] is mapping [those regions] and will soon announce the dates for voter registration in the diaspora.”
“Voters will be able to inspect and verify their registration details in the register at least sixty days before the elections to promote transparency and accountability in the electoral process.”
