The Alego-Usonga Member of Parliament (MP) Samuel Atandi has been restrained from presenting his papers to the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commision (IEBC) as the constituency’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) nominee as the candidate for the seat.
The electoral body has further been restrained from receiving nomination certificates from Atandi or any other person to IEBC as its Alego-Usonga parliamentary nominee for the August elections.
This is a pending hearing and disposal of the complainant’s application filed on May 10, by Nicholas Kut, an ODM aspirant for the seat.
In the matter that was certified urgent, the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal also restrained IEBC from accepting; clearing and or publishing in the Kenya gazette any nominee.
The respondents and interested parties were served with details of the case and given a day to respond.
“The Respondents and interested Party shall respond to the application by end of day Thursday, May 12”, read the orders.
The application shall be heard on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at 1.00 pm, virtually.
Earlier, the nomination of Atandi had been nullified and fresh elections were ordered last week.
The political parties Dispute Tribunal ordered the Party’s National Elections Board(NEB) on April 30 to conduct fresh nominations through universal suffrage within 72 hours of its ruling.
The decision came after a successful appeal by Kut Who filed the complaint under a certificate of urgency before the tribunal to have the matter heard after the April 13 nominations
He had listed the ODM party as the 1st and 2nd respondents.
In the judgment delivered virtually, Atandi’s win was nullified on grounds that the exercise was not free and fair.
The ODM NEB went to the PPDT seeking a review of the judgement to conduct fresh nominations.
They wanted the PPDP to allow them to use any method within the party’s constitution.
From that meeting, there was an agreement NEB was to meet both parties to settle on the mode of coming up with a nominee to carry the party’s ticket.
However, on Monday, NEB issued a statement that they decided to hand the party ticket to Atandi after wide consultation.
The statement read that the committee met on Sunday, May 8, reviewed the cases pursuant to the directions issued by the Tribunal and guided by the rules 8(b) and 23(2) of the party primaries and nomination rules on direct nominations nominated the candidate listed in the table.
In the Gem constituency, the PPDT had directed ODM NEB to issue MP Elisha Odhiambo with the nomination ticket but the party has instead given it out to Jalango Midiwo.
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