Nairobi, Kenya, April 13 – Angaza Movement, a consortium of civic and human rights organizations towards electoral integrity and political accountability has expressed concern over what they termed absence of certainty, clarity and predictability in the ongoing political parties’ nomination process ahead of the August 9, elections.
They stated that nomination, selection and presentation of candidates in different political outfits are the bedrock of the electoral process.
Their concern comes in the wake of different political parties handing out direct nomination to some candidates a move that has been met with mixed reactions amongst supporters form different political quarters.
“When members of political parties are robbed of their rights to participate in choosing their representatives, it is difficult to ascertain that their right to participate in the political process is being promoted,” Kenya Human Rights Commission, InformAction, Defenders Coalition, Haki Yetu, Crawn Trust, Inuka Kenya and journalists for Justice said in a joint statement Wednesday.
ICJ, CSO Network, MUHURI and MidRift Human Rights Network also signed the statement.
The lobby warned that the boardroom selection of candidates threaten democracy in the country as it denies other candidates an opportunity for a level playing field.
The movement said that political parties need to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and probity when conducting their primary elections arguing that their choices contribute to the outcome of the general elections.
“The manner in which political parties conduct their elections is just as important as to the credibility of who is elected or selected,” they said.
They pointed out that candidates are key stakeholders and must be part of the decision makers in the party electoral systems to enhance political party democracy.
“We acknowledge that political parties have their set of rules on how to conduct nominations, but we also must emphasis that, they have an obligation to ensure that their processes are free and fair, credible and legitimate,” they added.
They called on the Registrar of Political Parties to encourage compliance with the constitutional standards that promote citizen’s political participation and freedom of choice through competitive candidature selection which they said “sets a basis for a process that is credible, free and fair election”.
The movement stated that each party must conduct their party primary election processes in a manner that does not undermine democratic principles and the rights of their members.