IEBC rejects 79 political parties' nomination lists for failing to meet requirements

IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati in a statement on Friday said that despite meeting the deadline of submission of the lists which was done towards the end of June 2022, all the 79 parties that submitted party nomination lists did not meet the constitutional threshold to represent special interests, the youth and Persons with Disability.

“A total of seventy-nine (79) Party Lists were received as of 25th June 2022. Guided by the provisions of Section 34(6A) of the Elections Act and Regulation 55 of the Elections (General) Regulations, 2012, the Commission reviewed the submitted lists to ensure compliance,” read the IEBC statement.

“None of the submitted seventy-nine (79) Party Lists were compliant and stand rejected for various reasons documented for each respective party.”

Chebukati thus called on the political parties to resubmit their documents before the lapse of seven days, failure to which they would be turned away, with only about 28 days to the polls.

“The Political Parties are required, as guided by law, to review the lists within seven (7) days and resubmit the said lists on or before 22nd July 2022, being seven (7) days from the date of rejection of the party list. The Political Parties are required to comply with this requirement failing which their party lists will be deemed rejected,” stated Chebukati.

The commission further noted that at the conclusion of the reviewing process, it would publicise in the newspapers and invite any complaints from aggrieved nominees or interested parties.

These seats are allocated to Political Parties in proportion to the total number of seats won by candidates to the political party at the General election.

While the party nomination lists are meant to avail opportunities for special interest groups to be at the policy-making organs, such as parliament, to enrich debate and quality of laws made the lists, unfortunately, end up being populated by some names that have nothing to do with the minority or marginalised groups.