Bett: The nomination exercise will be peaceful. Photo/FILE.
The party’s election board chairman, Franklin Bett on Sunday announced that there will be five polling stations in every ward to ensure ODM members and supporters have no difficulty accessing them.
“We will be publishing our polling stations tomorrow (Monday). We have given on average five polling stations per ward; strategically located so that no one group or no one person will be travelling a distance longer than the other,” Bett said.
There were concerns that most polling stations would be schools hence interrupting learning.
Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo intends told a meeting with the registrar of political parties to find a solution on the matter to ensure the learning process is not interrupted.
Political parties have agreed to carry out the nomination exercise peacefully even in areas where polling centers are within close proximity.
Various parties have been meeting to strike a consensus on the use of polling centres but the final meeting did not take place for lack of quorum.
“We were not able to harmonise our polling stations with our other colleagues as anticipated in the coalitions,” Bett told journalists on Sunday.
He however, assured that the lack of consensus did not mean that the nominations would be anything less than amicable.
According to Bett, there are over 6,000 party members seeking nomination for elective office under the ODM ticket in the 47 counties.
The nominations will be carried out by secret ballot with a delegate system being used in 22 of the counties and what Bett terms ‘Universal suffrage’ in the remaining 22.
“We will be using the National ID card and the register from the IEBC. You will be asking why we have abandoned the membership list. It is very simple. Parliament under section 29 of the elections act was amended to say members and supporters will vote,” he clarified.
Starehe Member of Parliament Bishop Margaret Wanjiru will also know Monday whether she will be cleared to vie for Nairobi Governor under an ODM ticket.
Those vying for gubernatorial seats are required to be university graduates but there are allegations that some of Bishop Wanjiru’s academic credentials are not recognised by the Commission for Higher Education (CHE).
Bishop Wanjiru has refuted the allegations saying she holds a Doctor of Theology degree from Vineyard Harvester Bible College received in 2003 and a bachelor’s degree in Christian Leadership from United Graduate College and Seminary International awarded in 2010.
“We are also critically looking into petitions or complaints from various citizens,” Bett said “we are eliminating those who are not falling within the list of requirements and we should be able to conclude all of them before noon tomorrow (Monday).”
Bett told journalists that several candidates have already been cleared to vie – including Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang who is interested in the Homa Bay county Senator’s seat.
“We were told Otieno Kajwang had been struck from the roll of advocates, yes he was once, but we now have documents showing he has been reinstated,” he said.
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