The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has called its nominations in parts of Nairobi and opted to use opinion polls to settle on the best candidates.
UDA National Elections Board chairperson Anthony Mwaura announced that his party and Amani National Congress (ANC) parties will not hold their planned joint nominations for Dagoretti North Constituency and Mathare Constituency.
Mwaura said alternative methods will be used to determine the best-suited nominees for the positions.
Likewise, UDA has also called off the nominations for Kamukunji Constituency, Starehe Constituency and Embakasi East Constituency.
“The National Elections Board wishes to notify the public that after consultations between UDA and ANC, there will be no joint nominations for Dagoretti North and Mathare Constituencies. Instead, alternative methods will be used to identify nominees. This, therefore, means that there will be no universal suffrage nominations between the coalition partners as earlier communicated,” Mwaura said.
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“The board also clarifies that there will be no nominations for Embakasi East and Kamkunji constituencies under UDA using universal suffrage. Instead, alternative methods as provided by the party constitution will be applied.”
These changes come a few days after UDA primaries that were held last week were largely contested by aspirants who alleged massive irregularities.
However, the primaries scheduled for Wednesday in Roysambu Constituency and 19 wards will still take place.
Mwaura also revealed that Starehe parliamentary aspirants Charles Njagua and Simon Mbugua have signed a commitment that either will accept the results of an opinion poll that will determine who will fly the UDA ticket in the Starehe parliamentary race.
The UDA NEB chairperson also said UDA leader William Ruto has spoken to the losers in the primaries and the party is planning to meet all the participants in the primaries to chart a way forward.
"Deputy President has talked to most of those people who lost and next week we are planning to meet all the aspirants who participated in our elections to map out the way forward," Mwaura said.
Mwaura also said UDA and ANC have agreed to use opinion polls to determine the most popular candidates in areas they will hold joint nominations.
According to Mwaura, they are going to sign commitments they will accept the results of the opinion polls.
UDA chairperson Johnson Muthama reiterated that after the party primaries are concluded, the party will hold a joint meeting with both winners and losers.
“We have agreed that we clear all the issues of nominations then we have a meeting with all the UDA winners and losers in the primaries,” Muthama said.