450,000 to battle for UDA party positions in Thursday's grassroots polls

The party will hold its Repeat Phase II grassroots elections in eighteen counties, including Kisumu, Siaya, Migori, Kisii, Bungoma, Makueni, Machakos, Kitui, Isiolo, Marsabit, Taita Taveta, Lamu, Tana River, Kilifi, Kwale, Mombasa, and Turkana

In a media brief on Wednesday, UDA said more than 450,000 candidates, representing a variety of groups like women, young people, special interest groups, farmers, religious leaders, professionals, and small-scale traders, have registered to run for 20 different posts at polling stations.

Over 9,000 polling places across the country will host the exercise, which is anticipated to draw eight million voters. Voting is set to start at 8:00 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m.

Elections are a component of the party's larger grassroots reorganisation; comparable surveys have already been carried out in 25 counties. 

“As with previous grassroots elections, we will deploy end-to-end technology to manage the process, with 9,500 electronic voting tablets already at each Polling Centre,” UDA said. The elections results would be uploaded on the party’s website. 

It is anticipated that the exercise would produce 182,240 elected grassroots representatives, who will serve as the cornerstone of the local leadership structure of the party.