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Mudavadi asserts that arguments by Anyang' Nyong'o do not hold water/FILE

Kenya

I was short-changed, insists Mudavadi

Mudavadi asserts that arguments by Anyang' Nyong'o do not hold water/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 14 – Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi on Friday maintained there is a plot to lock him out from seeking the presidency in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) by giving party leader Raila Odinga an automatic ticket for the top seat.

In a statement through his private secretary Kibisu Kabatesi, Mudavadi poked holes into arguments advanced by Secretary General Anyang’ Nyong’o that the party only filed its registration documents without amending a controversial clause that gives Odinga an automatic ticket, in a bid to beat the April 30 deadline.

He explained that at the moment, the ODM is provisionally registered. On Tuesday, the party applied for full registration. Once fully registered, the party will be governed by all provisions of the Act, including Section 20 which governs amendments of the party Constitutions.

“The public has consistently been misled that what the party did on Tuesday was merely to ‘file returns’. To the contrary, on Tuesday, full registration was hurriedly applied for under the un-amended Constitution, in contempt of the NEC Resolution,” he said.

He added; “The legal net effect is that the party’s presidential ticket has been secured for the party leader.”

Kabatesi pointed out that Section 20 of the Political Parties Act, which the Secretary General and Odinga’s Presidential Campaign Secretariat have quoted applies to a political party which is fully registered under the Political Parties Act, 2011.

He argued that the legal net effect of the move is that the party’s presidential ticket has been secured for the party leader.

Mudavadi says the reason is once the party is fully registered, any attempt to procure an amendment would require the lengthy procedure, with no certainty to success.

“The reason (for the rushing to the registrar) is once the party is fully registered, any attempt to procure an amendment would require the lengthy procedure stipulated in Section 20, with no certainty as to success,” explained Kabetesi.

But, Odinga on Friday afternoon maintained that ODM will not have automatic nomination of the party’s flag bearer.

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Speaking in Chonyi, Kilifi County during the burial of the mother to Bahari MP Benedict Fondo Gunda, the PM said the nomination of the party’s presidential candidate is an exercise that will be carried out by party delegates.

The premier also told non-ODM members stop interfering with internal affairs of the party.

He asserted that Mudavadi was in ODM to stay and dismissed allegations from party outsiders that he was shopping for a new party.

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