IEBC gives all political parties 129 days to conduct primaries

Political parties in the country now have 129 days to conduct their party primaries.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission IEBC has now given more time to all political parties in Kenya to conduct their party primaries.

This comes after the commission changed the date for gazettement of the general election date from 14th March 2022 to 19th January, further changed the end date for all political parties to conduct their primaries with regard to Intra-party disputes, submission of names of candidates after party primaries to 26th May 2022.

Speaking during the meeting with all commissioners and political party affiliates, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chabukati said as a commission, they will not hesitate to flash out yellow or red cards as part of the law of the game to politicians who cannot respect regulations in order to deliver free and fair elections.

Chebukati also urged political parties to be familiar with the Elections Operation Plan (EOP), which provides a key timeline of the election calendar.

The agency met with the Political Parties Liaison Committee and shared with them an in-depth roadmap to the next year's general election and target for an enhanced continuous voter registration exercise which is planned for this month.

The chairman of the Political Parties Liaison Committee Evans Misati said the political temperature in the country is on the rise and urged the candidates to be cautious of what they say in their political gatherings.

On other hand, the Registrar of Political parties Ann Nderitu urged the parties to conduct fair nominations and on time.

According to her, the country has 75 political parties fully registered and 10 have applied to be registered.

Other 22 parties have provisional certificates and the process to finish the registration is underway.

She added that nearly 100 people have changed their political parties to vie as independent candidates, a move that has weakened some parties.