Africa-Press – Kenya. The electoral commission has clarified that the allocation of nomination seats to political party members was unbiased.
The clarification by chairman Wafula Chebukati on Thursday follows claims by a section of Kenyans that some parties sold their nominations to the highest bidders.
“All political parties and IEBC should be ashamed for turning the nomination lists for MPs, Senators and MCA seats into an auction process where the highest bidders win the bid…shame on you,” lawyer Ahmednasir said in a tweet.
But Chebukati said the formula for allocating the nomination slots cannot be manipulated to favour certain individuals.
“The formulae which was applied through an electronic system is simple, secure and accurate and is without room for either adverse human intervention or bias,” Chebukati said.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is mandated by law to allocate nomination seats based on lists presented by qualifying political parties in line with the Elections Act.
The commission published the nominees to the Senate and National Assembly on September 7 and those nominated in the 47 County Assemblies were published on September 9.
Chebukati said the allocation of the nomination slots was conducted using a formula developed under Regulation 56(2) of the Elections Regulations.
The regulation states that the nomination slots are shared by dividing the number of seats won by a political party by the total number of seats and multiplied by available seats for allocation in the respective house.
“We wish to inform the public that as per the Constitution and the Elections Act, the party lists remain closed as at the date of the General Election and for the term of parliament and County Assembly as the case may be for which the candidates are elected and cannot be changed unless through an order of the court,” Chebukati said.
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
