Hard queries await courts in poll cases

By WAHOME THUKU

KENYA: Should failure to include the photograph of a parliamentary candidate on the ballot paper be a good reason to nullify the election and send the constituency back to the polls?

That is one of the questions courts will deal with as they start to hear over 180 petitions arising from the March 4 elections.

A Safina parliamentary candidate for Gatundu North seat Henry Mbote is asking the High Court in Nairobi to nullify the election on grounds that his picture was omitted on ballot papers.

He wants election of MP Francis Kigo nullified, saying the polls were not free and fair. Mr Mbote has filed the petition jointly with the immediate former MP Clement Waibara, who claims there were more votes than the registered number of voters in the area. In the petition filed through lawyer Evans Ondieki, the two claim the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) negligently breached the electoral law, which provides that the picture of the candidate, the name and symbol of political party should be on the ballot. “This confused my supporters and voters in general on whether I was still a valid candidate,” Mbote says.

He claims more than 20 per cent of voters in Gatundu North are illiterate and only relied on photographs to identify candidates.

Mr Kigo of TNA got 24,866 votes while Waibara got 4,842 on PPK ticket and Mbote 2,715 votes.

The petitioner claims he also shared one name with two candidates including the winner, which confused voters even more.

Most of the petitions are based on claims similar to those raised in the presidential election petitions determined by the Supreme Court in March. They include claims of more votes than registered voters, and irregularities in the electoral records and data.

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga last month gazetted names of 39 judges to hear 115 petitions filed at the High Court and 59 magistrates to hear petitions on Country Assembly seats.