IIEC PRAISED

A lobby group has praised the Interim Independent Electoral Commission for the manner in which the recent South Mugirango by-election was conducted.

The Institute for Education in Democracy (IED), which specialises in elections monitoring, said Tuesday the commission carried out the exercise in a transparent and democratic manner and called for its strengthening to deliver the much-needed electoral reforms in the country.

IED executive director, Peter Aling’o said their observation during the entire period of campaign and election revealed that IIEC is determined to improve and modernise the management and conduct of elections in the country.

“The IIEC managed and conducted the by-election in a credible, transparent and professional manner, and in general, the results reflected the wishes of the voters,” said Mr Aling’o at the organisation's offices on Lenana Road, Nairobi.

He said although the commission, for the first time in Kenya’s elections, transmitted election results electronically from the polling stations to the tallying centre at Lilian Towers in Nairobi, the process was short-lived as the commission was compelled to abandon it following objections raised by ODM members led by Lands minister James Orengo.

“In particular, we applaud the IIEC for adopting a modern technology-based method in the transmission of election results from the polling stations,” he said, adding that the commission’s decision to bow to ODM pressure could have been out of inexperience to stand the heat during such times.

Former South Mugirango legislator Omingo Magara’s election was nullified by the High Court, thus occasioning the June 10 by-election. Mr Magara subsequently lost to Mr Manson Nyamweya of Ford-People.

Violations

Although the by-election was held after the operationalisation of the Political Parties Act, which is aimed at mainstreaming the management and financing of political parties, IED’s verdict decries the manner in which the parties conducted their campaigns.

“The weaknesses in the Political Parties Act are largely to blame for the violations that occurred and the bad behaviour on the part of political parties,” says the preliminary report.

It adds that some political parties abandoned their own candidate and supported one from another party. It gives the example of PNU, which abandoned its candidate and campaigned for Mr Magara, a PDP candidate.

Mr Alingo further said the Chief Justice should gazette the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal Rules which had been developed and forwarded to him by the Registrar of Political Parties last year.

He said the rules would operationalise the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal which will deal with misconduct, bad behaviour and culture on the part of political parties.