NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 13 – The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) elections board on Thursday announced that its grassroots polls will start on March 5 and run for four days.
Deputy Party leader Musalia Mudavadi who read out the board\’s resolutions said the sub-branch, constituency and county polls would be conducted simultaneously during the four days.
"The NDC will deliberate purely on party elections and will not at this stage tackle issues relating to nominations for positions for the 2012 elections. The NDC will not talk about positions like governors, MPs, senators and others. Those we will deal with next year," he said.
Mr Mudavadi further said polls for the youth and women organs of the party would also be conducted during the period to ensure the party structures were realigned to conform to the changes the country realised in recent times.
The meeting of the elections board further resolved that the polls would begin at the location level, then proceed to the constituency and eventually the counties.
The polling will be spread over four days to cater for religious groups who will have problems going through the exercise on Saturday and Sunday.
The grassroots elections will give way to the National Delegates Conference set for April 8 – 9 at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.
The meeting was also attended by Party Leader and Prime Minister Raila Odinga and elections board chairman Philip Okundi.
Mr Odinga said the elections would run across the country and urged the board to thoroughly vet candidates for the party positions.
He also called for an end to the rivalries at party branches and urged members to avoid them especially as the party prepared for elections.
Mr Odinga used the opportunity to confirm that he will be returning to the Ivory Coast on Sunday to continue with the mediation process.
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