IEBC Faces Dillema Over Number of Presidential Candidates in the Repeat Election

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has been caught in a dilemma over how many presidential candidates will be allowed to contest in the repeat poll ordered by the Supreme Court.

While the Constitution and the other electoral laws are silent on the process of conducting a repeat election, the electoral agency is considering a finding from the 2013 presidential election petition ruling of the Willy Mutunga-led Supreme Court.

In the 2013 presidential petition, the highest court in the land found that a fresh poll prompted by invalidation of a presidential election will be limited to the petitioner or petitioners and the previously declared president-elect.

If IEBC decide to use the ruling, the contest will be reduced to between National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga versus President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Supreme Court ruled that presidential candidate who did not dispute the election in the Supreme Court would be held to have conceded defeat and uninterested in a second round of elections.

Third Way Alliance presidential candidate Dr Ekuru Aukot successfully applied to be enjoined in this year’s petition as an interested party and contested, IEBC will have to decide on whether to include him in the contest.

Speaking in a press conference in the weekend , Aukot said that all the 8 candidates in the August 8th contest must be allowed to run regardless of their earlier concession.

IEBC is further waiting the full judgment of the court for clear directions on the areas the court want rectified in the fresh poll.

IEBC has already intimated that there will be no fresh presidential nominations.

The electoral commission plans to recall all the more than 40,000 electronic election management kits used during the August 8th polls to reconfigure them and erase the old data. The poll body must also source for a new supplier of new ballot papers.