Thursday, October 13, 2011

Parliament told printer altered Elections Act



E-mailPrintPDF
Share/Save/Bookmark
MPs resumed sittings yesterday with guns once again turned on the Government Printer accused of altering the Election Act to grant 2012 presidential losers a chance to be nominated back to Parliament. The MPs have demanded that the Act be returned to the printer and a corrigenda published to delete a clause which they say was never approved by Parliament.
They also want Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende to order investigations into whoever made the new insertions to be punished. Garsen MP Danson Mungatana who raised the matter said new words were added to what Parliament passed to give presidential losers and their running mates a fall back.
He said clause 34 (9) of the Act as published by the Government Printer was never approved by Parliament. The clause reads that, “The party list may not contain a name of any presidential or deputy presidential candidate nominated for an election under this Act.” The law says parties must submit to the electoral commission a party nomination list three months to an election.
Mungatana said Parliament agreed that names of presidential candidates and their running mates not be included in this list. Gichugu MP Martha Karua said that after reading the Act, she noticed the penalties for offences related to election are not the same as those proposed by the House. Olago Aluoch said the new words were not an “innocent error”. Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim while admitting the matters raised were weighty requested for time to go through the Act and the Hansard and give a communication tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment