Sunday, June 16, 2013

Political parties to wait longer for state funding

file | NATION IEBC officials at the Bomas national elections tallying centre on March 06, 2013.
IEBC officials at the Bomas national elections tallying centre on March 06, 2013. 
By WALTER MENYA wmenya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, June 15  2013 at  18:15
Political parties will have to wait much longer to know how much each will receive from the Exchequer. This is because of the delay by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to publish the vote tallies for all the elective positions in the last elections.
The publication of official tallies for governors, senators, county women’s representatives and the county ward representatives are crucial for the computation of what each party will get from the public coffers.
In disbursing the funds to political parties, the registrar of political parties considers each party’s strength in terms of seats won from presidency to county representatives. The registrar is also required to consider the number of votes each party obtained in the last elections to help in determining how much each party gets.
Up to now, the IEBC has not published the vote tallies for all positions, with claims that the figures in their possession do not reconcile with what was recorded in the statutory forms at the polling stations.
Mr George Kegoro, the executive director of the International Commission of Jurists – Kenya chapter, writing in the Nation of June 8, urged the commission to end the delay and release the full results.
“At first, it was thought that the delay was due to ordinary management weaknesses within the IEBC. However, it has since emerged that the IEBC is having sleepless nights reconciling the presidential results and those of the other positions. This revelation came in the light of attempts by the IEBC to apply the results in the distribution of the Political Parties Fund which, according to the applicable law, is to be shared among qualifying parties on the basis of votes received in several categories of the elections, including the presidential contest,” said Mr Kegoro.
The delay in publishing the figures is causing jitters in political parties whose officials read mischief in the conduct of the IEBC. Some officials of parties that took part in the March 4 elections have told the Nationthat they are operating on a shoe-string budget, having spent a lot on elections.
Wiper Democratic Party’s David Musila said it was surprising that while the Statement on Actual Revenue and Net Exchequer Issues was published in April, the registrar of political parties has not made any efforts to inform the parties of what is due to them.
“Parties are right now operating on shoe-string budgets. It’s quite bad and the political parties’ directorate should explain to the parties what is happening,” said Mr Musila.
The registrar of political parties, Lucy Ndung’u, on the other hand, blamed the Treasury which she said has not released the money. Ms Ndung’u maintains that there has been no official communication from the Treasury in regard to the disbursement of the funds meant for the parties.
“We are waiting for communication from the Treasury on the funding for parties. I have not seen the budget statement or any form of communication. In fact Treasury has not released funds for a lot of things. So we are still waiting,” Ms Ndung’u told the Nation.
The Political Parties Act provides that the fund shall be at least 0.3 per cent of the revenue collected by the national government which translates to about Sh2.8 billion.
Mr Musila argued that the budget is not the issue, alluding to a much bigger problem within the IEBC and the registrar of political parties’ office. According to Mr Musila, government operations have not stalled because of issues of budget and the “registrar cannot feign such ignorance”.
“The budget is not the issue here. The registrar should be bold enough to tell the public what is happening,” the Kitui Senator said, adding that IEBC should publish the pending vote figures to enable the parties know the monies due to them.
Mr Kegoro had also claimed that the results in IEBC’s custody do not make sense and thus, the “the electoral management body is seeking a change of the law which will allow it to use a different formula from that of the votes received in the elections to allocate funding for political parties.”
IEBC CEO James Oswago said: “We are working on them and we shall release them very soon.”
But a commissioner who spoke to us on condition of anonymity because he is not the official spokesman said the commission was at pains reconciling the vote figures.
The commissioner said the difference between the votes for the president and those of governors, senators and members of the National Assembly “was running into hundreds of thousands and even millions”.
For instance, the difference of the total votes cast for the president and the county assembly representatives stands at 300,000.
“This thing is too hot to handle. We are waiting for the chairman to return so that we do it when he is around and he also gives guidance,” the commissioner said. IEBC chairman Issack Hassan was reportedly out of the country on official business.
During the hearing of the election petition against the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, petitioners Gladwell Otieno, who is the executive director of the African Centre for Open Governance (AFRICOG), and her co-petitioner told the Supreme Court of five different types of Form 36 which gave conflicting results from those declared at the polling stations.
Some of the Forms 36, the commissioner who spoke to the Sunday Nation said, had pictures of the presidential candidates while others do not have the pictures. Others also have spaces for agents to sign while some do not have the space for agents to append their signatures.
The National Alliance (TNA) Secretary-General Onyango Oloo confirmed the delay but did not share Mr Musila’s sentiments.
“No, we have not (received the funds). From budget to disbursement takes some time, may be two months. The budget was read jana (yesterday),” Mr Oloo said.
URP, on their part, said they had no cause to be worried over the funds for the coming financial year because the budget had only been presented to the National Assembly.
“I know the votes for each of our party’s MPs, governors, senators and even the ward representatives. This is not something I need to wait for IEBC to publish. That figure is obtainable even without IEBC publishing it. So, as URP, we have no cause to complain,” URP chairman Francis ole Kaparo said.
But he conceded that he did not know whether the registrar of political parties had disbursed all the funds from the last financial year, arguing that URP did not participate in the 2007 elections.
“I am not complaining at all. I understand that this is public money and the disbursement must be done according to the law which is the budget statement,” said Mr Kaparo.
Speaking for Narc, a partner in the Jubileee coalition, former Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo said the party was worried over the delay in publishing the election figures. “Very worried,” he said.
And Vihiga MP Yusuf Chanzu, a close associate of former Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi who was the UDF presidential candidate in the March 4 elections, said the IEBC needs to explain to the public what is going on.

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