Women aspirants meet to condemn electoral irregularities and malpractice at Party Primaries

Women parliamentary aspirants have joined hands to criticize the recently concluded process of parliamentary and civic nominations that were characterized by serious electoral malpractices and irregularities.

Speaking during a press conference held at the Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) on November 20, 2007, women aspirants from various political parties in the country observed that political parties went to the primaries largely on the three coalition platforms-ODM, ODM-K, and PNU. They noted that the coalitions were hurriedly configured, hard no stable membership and could hardly marshal appropriate systems and mechanisms for managing the demands of the massive nomination process. 

The CMD Executive Director Ms. Njeri Kabeberi said that coalitions clearly undermined the independence of individual political parties and compromised their capacities to assert themselves as credible institutions. Political parties, she said were unable to protect their own supporters hence leading to intense, emotive and violent reactions from losers and winners, “many of whom felt betrayed by the very political parties they had built, natured and supported. The results were there for all to see – violence, massive rigging and blatant vote buying among a host of other electoral malpractices that can only hamper democracy,” she added.

The group of women aspirants, both losers and winners at the just concluded primaries said there was need for political parties to guard their own integrity as institutions and “cushion their membership against such unpredictable situations as the country is currently witnessing.” They called for a keen and honest re-examination of the timing of coalition politics, saying this would add greater value and credibility to the process.

The CMD also noted that that value of a peaceful election can never be over emphasized saying the concluded party primaries were marred by violence that resulted to fatalities, injuries and voter intimidation. The political rights lobby group added that women and people with disabilities were particularly highly affected, “the sad state has continued even after the nomination exercise as witnessed in political party headquarters.” Said Njeri.

Other speakers, Marion Mutugi, Jackline Oduor, Dr. Sally Kosgei, Ms. Wahu Kara, and Zipporah Kittony also abhorred and condemned the political violence and urged political parties to resolve disputes amicably and with dignity. They further urged the ECK and security agents in the country to do a lot more and scale up their vigilance to curb electoral violence.

The head of CMD congratulated all the women who won party nominations on various tickets and urged them to carry on with the struggle, “We appreciate that the battle was tough and grueling and I acknowledge that it will not get better.” The CMD, she said will jointly with its partners continue to do the best to support the women so that they can achieve the overall goal of increasing the number of women in the tenth parliament.