Monday, August 16, 2010

City Hall election dispute deepens

Written By:Doreen Appollos , Posted: Mon, Aug 16, 2010


PNU councilors from City Council of Nairobi want Sunday's disputed elections nullified.

The civic leaders claim that the council did not conduct elections for chairpersons but on the mode of voting to be used to select the key committee leaders.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has however moved to assure the aggrieved civic leaders that law and laid down procedures will be followed in resolving the committee elections.

Mudavadi promised the councillors that once the report on the election is forwarded to him, he would act accordingly.

The local government minister further urged councillors to demonstrate maturity in their elections by shunning chaos and party politics.

The PNU councillors are threatening to take action if the elections are not nullified. The elections of the chairpersons ended in disarray on Sunday amid claims of rigging and electoral malpractices.

Trouble started after mayor Geoffrey Majiwa claimed the ODM party had grabbed all the seats after garnering 47 votes beating the rival PNU by only one vote.

Outraged by the outcome the PNU group dismissed the elections as a sham accusing the mayor of being partisan and doctoring the results in favour of his own party ODM.

The PNU councilors said whereas they wanted the voting done by secret ballot, the mayor went ahead and conducted the exercise by acclamation.

The PNU side led by councillor Mutunga Mutungi insisted that no election had taken place and accused the Mayor of flouting the Local Government Act.

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