Thousands of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) supporters will not vote in the party’s primaries after the Registrar of Political Parties revealed that only a handful had registered.
According to the political parties registrar, Ms Lucy Ndung'u, only the party members duly listed at the registrar’s office will be allowed to participate in party primaries.
The shocker by Ndung’u, has sent shock-waves in ODM and necessitated Gem Member of Parliament (MP) Jakoyo Midiwo to call for the amendment of the law to allow IEBC use voter registers in party primaries.
Jakoyo noted that the dismal registration of members in several constituencies perceived to be ODM strongholds could see a substantial number of the ODM supporters get locked out of the process.
ODM National Elections Board chairperson Judy Pareno, however, said that the party will comply with the law and only allow the registered party members to vote in the coming primaries.
The registrar highlighted that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had already received lists forwarded to them by various parties.
Ndung’u added that only 57 political parties had complied with the requirements of the law that demanded that lists be submitted to the commission by March 27.
She, however, noted that no party had managed to register over one million people and called on the parties to collect the same lists from them to conduct their primaries.
Samples from ODM zones such Gem Constituency with over 70,000 registered voters, saw only 6,110 people registered as ODM members, Nyatike with over 51,000 registered voters recorded a meagre 4,000 while in Kasipul with 56,000 registered voters, had less than 9,000.
