Electoral commission crafting guidelines for political parties

Ezra Chiloba, the chief executive officer of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, at the InterContinental Nairobi hotel on January 14, 2016. PHOTO | JAMES EKWAM | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chief executive Ezra Chiloba said that the guidelines will be stringent.

  • This came as Amani National Congress (ANC) and a constitutional lobby warned the Jubilee Party against its plans to get the electoral commission to finance its nomination of candidates.

The electoral agency is crafting a list of guidelines that political parties will be required to adhere to before it agrees to conduct their nominations.

Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chief executive Ezra Chiloba said that the guidelines will be stringent.

This came as Amani National Congress (ANC) and a constitutional lobby warned the Jubilee Party against its plans to get the electoral commission to finance its nomination of candidates.

On Wednesday, Mr Chiloba said the commission will not compromise with the nominations and will reject requests from parties that fail to meet their threshold.

“We will provide a checklist for the political parties, which they must adhere to before we agree to conduct the nominations. The checklist will include party list, constitution, mode of election, dispute resolution mechanisms, among other requirements,” he said.

Mr Chiloba described the nominations as a “cumbersome” exercise and said IEBC will require political parties to submit their requests earlier.

“We admit that the process will be cumbersome and so we should be informed earlier, preferably by January and we will advise the political parties to look for other alternatives, like outsourcing for reputable firms to conduct their nominations and not only looking at us to carry out the exercise,” he said.

On Tuesday, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale said the Jubilee Party will take advantage of a lacuna in the law to request IEBC to factor in its budget funds for the party’s nominations. But ANC Organising Secretary Basil Mwakiringo termed the move a scheme by Jubilee to steal from taxpayers by purporting to use IEBC to fund its nominations.

“The fact that Jubilee Party can dare utter such redundancy shows the contempt with which the party holds Kenyans. Only bankrupt regimes go to this extent,” said Mr Mwakiringo.

Separately, a lobby comprising Coalition for Constitution Implementation Kenya, Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders and Bunge la Mwananchi told IEBC to keep off party primaries and instead focus on conducting polls. The group’s convener Cidi Otieno said parties should be able to conduct their nominations.