Kenyan opposition party has new strategy for elections

27th September 2017 By: African News Agency

Kenyan opposition party has new strategy for elections

As Kenya braces for a re-run of the bungled August presidential elections, the opposition party of Raila Odinga has unveiled a new strategy to ensure that the country’s electoral commission abides by the law, Kenya’s Daily Nation reported on Wednesday.

The Jubilee Party’s new strategy is aimed at ensuring the electoral commission abides by the law in managing the tallying and transmission of results at the October 26 presidential elections.

Kenya’s Supreme Court annulled the August 8 elections on the grounds that they were run unlawfully and ordered a rerun on October 17.

This date was postponed, however, due to the short time-frame in which Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was given to reform its faulty electoral procedures, and for the East African country to prepare for fresh elections.

Jubilee reports that it will deploy its 138 MPs as its chief agents in their constituencies while those who contested on the party’s ticket and lost will play the same role in zones where President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party does not have representatives.

Following a meeting convened by Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto at State House on Tuesday, MPs were told that in addition to being Kenyatta’s chief agents at the constituency, they would also be able to appoint, arrange and train agents while supervising them on election day.

Every constituency will also have a lawyer present to guide the MPs as they oversee the work of IEBC agents to ensure the election runs smoothly.

The MPs will be responsible for scrutinising Forms 34B and ensuring they are properly filled out.

This plan will complement planned changes to the Elections Act in alignment with the decision by the Court of Appeal which stated that the results announced at the constituencies are final, and the Supreme Court judgement that faulted the electoral commission for announcing the result of the presidential election without all the Forms 34A.

Prior to August’s elections the electoral commission had stated that the forms would be the basis of the results in cases where there was a conflict between what was in the electronic system and what had been written in them.