TNA moves primaries to Friday

The National Alliance (TNA) has extended its primaries by a day following a delay in delivery of nomination papers to polling centres.

TNA chairman Johnson Sakaja said among other issues, the party received the registers “very late” cutting out some areas in the country from participating in the voting.

“We have to extend our nominations until tomorrow (Friday) mainly to ensure that we have a process that is above reproach and that is free and fair,” he said during a press briefing in Nairobi.

He explained that they got the register at 3pm on Wednesday and it took them long to print the ballot papers causing a delay in delivery of the voting documents to all centres.

“It would have been easier to go and agree – cut papers and vote. But we wanted to have a certain degree of quality to do it right,” Mr Sakaja said.

The documents were flown to some centres and delivered by road in others.

“The voting will start at 6 am and by 3 pm the counting will start,” he said while apologising to party members and urging them not to get discouraged.

The party is expected to release a comprehensive list of the centres affected by the delay.

Mr Sakaja moved to allay fears that the delay would create an opportunity for those who would try to rig the elections saying that the certificates will be issued upon the completion of the party primaries.

“I would like to assure all our members and candidates that there are no favoured candidates and there is no one who has a direct certificate, including the Deputy Prime Minister and flag bearer does not have his yet. Even those who are running unopposed have not received theirs yet,” he said.

“As a party, we were fully prepared; we have done a by-election before and were the only party that did a nomination process. But since we got the documents late and it was beyond or control, we did not want to compromise the process and have a sham nomination,” Mr Sakaja said.

Earlier at the TNA Secretariat in Nairobi, former Embakasi MP and Nairobi Governor aspirant Ferdinand Waititu blamed the delay for delivery of the nomination papers on the printers.

At about 11am Thursday, loaders packed papers into trucks which were being dispatched to centres in Nairobi, Laikipia, Kisii, Murang’a, Nakuru and other locations.

Mr Sakaja denied that the delay was a tactic to woo over late defectors from other political parties.

“We have been honest in the manner in which we have conducted our affairs and would not like to play underhand games especially to our members,” he said.

However, he added that aspirants have until midnight tonight to join their team.