Photo/FILE Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi speaks during a meeting with ODM party delegates at Moi Girls Vokoli High School in Vihiga County in December last year. The Local Government minister has said that only a free and fair nomination will save the party from disintegrating.
By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, March 4 2012 at 22:30
Posted Sunday, March 4 2012 at 22:30
ODM holds a vital meeting of the top party organs on Monday, expected to fix the dates and determine the system for the party’s presidential nominations.
The joint session of the National Executive Council and Parliamentary Group comes as Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi spoke of unspecified consequences if the system of nominations is not free and fair.
Mr Mudavadi is battling it out with Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the party’s presidential ticket.
Speaking in Kakamega last Friday, Mr Mudavadi warned that only a free and fair nomination would save the party from disintegrating.
“We must avoid reckless handling of the processes or be ready to face the consequences that follow if the processes are mismanaged,” he said.
The Monday meeting is expected to set the agenda for the party’s National Governing Council (NGC) meeting tentatively scheduled for March 15.
On Sunday, joint coalition chief whip Jakoyo Midiwo confirmed that the meeting was on, but did not reveal the agenda: “It is true there is a NEC meeting but they have not told us the agenda.”
However, a source within the NEC, who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the party, said that Monday’s meeting will be used to ratify a proposal for the National Delegates Conference (NDC) to hold the presidential nominations simultaneously with the party national elections “as soon as possible”.
The proposal is intended to end the controversy regarding the mode of electing the party’s presidential candidate, which threatens to split the party down the middle.
Mr Odinga and Mr Mudavadi are sharply divided over the system of nominating a presidential candidate.
Mr Mudavadi has been pushing for changes so that the nominations are done through a poll at the county level rather than at a gathering of the National Delegates Conference.
If the proposal for the presidential primaries and the national elections to be held at the delegates conference is endorsed, the campaign by Mr Mudavadi’s supporters for polls at county level will be defeated.
Mr Mudavadi has been arguing that nomination at the delegates conference will be open to manipulation, so endorsement of the proposal at the meeting on Monday could well have him declare that the party has opted for a system he says is not free and fair.
Mr Odinga’s allies have claimed that there is an external hand behind Mr Mudavadi’s aggressive push to win the ODM presidential nominations.
They have come down hard on the DPM, accusing him of seeking to split the party. There have also been accusations that he is the preferred presidential candidate for the G7 axis if Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr William Ruto are unable to run because of indictment by the International Criminal Court.
The accusations have drawn sharp reactions from Mr Mudavadi’s supporters, who have challenged Mr Odinga’s camp to allow democracy to thrive in the party by embracing internal competition.
Mr Odinga and Mr Mudavadi have publicly welcomed the contest and mutually promised to support whoever wins.
Defuse tensions
Speaking on a campaign tour in Embu on Sunday, Mr Mudavadi declared that his candidature would defuse tensions in the country.
The DPM said he does not want the party presidential ticket for the sake of it but as a means to help the party win and faithfully implement the Constitution.
“This country needs a stabilising hand at the helm and I commit myself to move away from the politics of polarisation. If all I wanted is to be on the ballot paper, there are easier options like running as an independent candidate,” he said.
He denies claims that he was the one advancing calls for the primaries to be held at the county level, noting that he was only supporting a position already approved by two of the party’s decision making organs, the NEC and the Parliamentary Group.
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