49pc back presidential system-poll

Almost half of Kenyans favour a pure presidential system of government and prefer electing their head of state through secret ballot, a new opinion poll shows.

The findings captured by research firm Synovate represent a complete shift of public opinion since 2005, when Kenyans rejected a referendum, which proposed a similar method of governance.

According to the study, if a referendum on the system of government was called today, 49 percent of Kenyans would vote for a pure presidential system, 31 percent hybrid and 18 percent pure parliamentary.

The percentage of the group, who did not prefer any of the three systems and those who pleaded ignorance was one percent a piece.

The study, conducted between January 19 and 21, interviewed 2,000 Kenyans through computer assisted telephone interview.

The question posed to the interviewees was which system of leadership they prefer to have: pure presidential, pure parliamentary or hybrid systems?

Majority answered they would  prefer directly voting for a president, who becomes both the head of state and government and whose powers are checked by other institutions.

According to Dr Tom Wolf, a political analyst at Synovate, some Kenyans made an about-turn from the hybrid system after realising they would be denied the opportunity of electing their leader.

“Once they realised that the responsibility of electing the head of government would be bestowed on Parliament many Kenyans changed their minds on the hybrid system,” said Dr Wolf.

The political analyst said the level of confidence on MPs in the country was very low, adding that Kenyans were  not going to allow  politicians to elect leaders on their behalf.

“It is possible that the public’s unhappiness towards MPs is affecting their attitude towards a pure parliamentary system of government,  since the responsibility of electing the leader of the government will be on the legislators,” said Dr Wolf.

On whether the size of a constituency should be based on the population or geographical size, 73 percent of Kenyans favoured the former, while 24 percent supported the  latter. Three percent did not have an opinion on the issue.

The study had a margin of error of 2.2 and a 95 percent level of confidence. It used computer assisted technology, which was only able to reach those with access to computers and telephones.

Late Wednesday, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitution Review sitting in Naivasha agreed to adopt a pure presidential system, where the president will be both the head of state and government.

The consensus put an end to the differences, over the executive chapter in the draft constitution, between the country’s two major political parties, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Party of National Unity (PNU).

The deal reached by PSC members, sounded the death knell for the hybrid system of government as had been proposed in the harmonised draft by the Committee of Experts.

The Committee Chairman Dr Nzamba Kitonga  said his team will adopt  the changes agreed by  the PSC.

“We are bound to accept  all the changes that have been agreed upon by the PSC through consensus,” said Dr Kitonga.

He said the CoE will only input on areas of disagreement or where changes made are vague.