Cord MPs to meet over poll case

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By NATION REPORTER
Posted  Wednesday, March 13  2013 at  00:30

IN SUMMARY

• Raila and Kalonzo to brief legislators on petition seeking to overturn Uhuru’s election victory

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Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka will on Wednesday morning meet all MPs elected on Cord affiliates to marshal support for the coalition.

Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka alongside Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula are expected to brief the 117 MPs about thepetition seeking to overturn Jubilee presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta’s election victory during the meeting to be held at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

They will also discuss strategies of sharing seats in Senate and Parliament among the various parties that constitute the Cord coalition once the two institutions are convened.

The seats include Speakers of Parliament and Senate as well as the leader of majority or minority in the lower and upper houses.

Governors and senators from Cord-allied parties including ODM, Wiper, Chama Cha Uzalendo, Federal Party of Kenya, People’s Democratic Party and The Independent Party have been invited to the talks.

Mr Musyoka held a meeting with all MPs elected on his Wiper party ticket on Tuesday to update them on the petition and to rally them behind the coalition ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.

The meeting at his Karen residence was attended by about 22 MPs and several senators and governors.

On Tuesday, the Cord team working on the petition led by senators-elect James Orengo and Mutula Kilonzo accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of summoning returning officers from the 290 constituencies to the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya to tamper with election material with a view to defeating the petition challenging Mr Kenyatta’s victory. Nation could not immediately verify the allegations.

The two said the move amounted to post-election rigging as the IEBC wanted to interfere with election materials to ensure they cannot be used as evidence in the petition.

“Now they are calling returning officers to Bomas to secure them. This is what I call post-election rigging,” Mr Orengo said.

They accused the electoral commission of sustaining a campaign urging Kenyans to accept the election results despite knowing that they were the subject of the impending case at the Supreme Court.

“IEBC as the institution whose deficiencies are subject of such challenges cannot therefore purport to ask the public to accept the election results as that is tantamount to violation of the democratic rights. We demand that IEBC stop these advertisements forthwith,” Mr Kilonzo stated.