Jubilee Party and the National Super Alliance (NASA) have in a rare show of togetherness united to discourage party hopping during the ongoing nominations.
Leaders from the two parties on Friday warned that the decamping period had already expired after the IEBC gazetted names of the aspirants to participate in the primaries.
The two outfits maintained that the regulations meant to govern the upcoming election had outlawed the practice, therefore, leaders who felt aggrieved after the primaries would only vie as independent candidates but not decamp to different parties.
The debate was sparked by nominated Senator Elizabeth Ongoro who moved from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to Musalia Mudavadi's ANC party through whose ticket she would vie for Ruaraka Parliamentary seat.
However, ODM’s Director of Elections Junet Mohamed indicated that party hopping period was over adding that Ongoro would not run for the seat since she had already been gazetted as an ODM aspirant.
“The law is clear. Once IEBC gazettes the list of aspirants and membership lists, you cannot move unless you want to run as an independent. I don’t see how she will run under ANC,” stated Mohamed.
The same was reiterated by Majority Leader in the National Assembly Aden Duale who affirmed that the practice of decamping had been regulated by the new law.
“The fact of the matter is that there is no room for party hopping other than through the independent candidate route. Essentially, the deadlines we had ring-fenced parties against this sort of haemorrhage,” Duale told the Standard.
Ongoro was on Friday given a life membership certificate by ANC despite not appearing as an Amani candidate in the list of gazetted aspirants.
