Pareno said the NEB will continue to monitor the situation across the country throughout the period of nominations to ensure the process is conducted in accordance with the election laws and constitution of the party/CFM NEWS
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 30 – The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party will hold primaries from April 7th to the 23rd.
The Chairperson of ODM’s National Elections Board (NEB) Judith Pareno Thursday told the media, “the party is ready to conduct free, fair, credible and peaceful nominations exercise and will not condone acts of violence meted on aspirants, party election officials or party supporters.”
Pareno said the NEB will continue to monitor the situation across the country throughout the period of nominations to ensure the process is conducted in accordance with the election laws and constitution of the party.
“NEB already monitoring the period leading to this exercise and will act accordingly on aspirants, their supporters or any member not living up to the expectations of our party as stipulated in our constitution,” she said during a briefing at party headquarters in Kilimani.
According to Pareno, Orange House has already trained members of County Election Committees (CECs) who will oversee elections in various parts of the country.
She noted that the nominations will be conducted through secret ballot with provisional certificates being issued to winners by Returning Officers overseeing the exercise.
Duly signed nomination certificates, Pareno said will be presented to candidates at the end of the exercise by members of the elections board and the party’s executive director.
The party intends to use a members’ roll during the nomination exercise with a voters register from the Independent and Electoral Commission (IEBC) being used to determine members enlisted in each polling station.
Several incidents of violence among ODM supporters have been reported in the recent past as candidates scramble for support at the grassroots.
Early in March, a group of rowdy supporters stoned a bus of Homa Bay governor aspirant Sammy Wakiaga who was traversing the county while campaigning for the county’s top job.
ODM’s Executive Director Oduor Ong’wen said the party’s Central Committee was seized of the matter saying perpetrators of violence during primaries will be disciplined in accordance with rules of the party.
“We have intelligence of aspirants trying to engage or recruit other people to disrupt the process, that is what we want to avoid,” Ong’wen said.
NEB will later on Thursday move to the office of the Inspector General of Police to present a list of polling stations to be used during nominations to ensure requisite measures are put in place to pre-empt potential threats.
The list of aspirants will be presented to the IEBC on Friday.
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