The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has announced that it will only allow clear Degree holders to run on the party’s ticket, once the new party rules being worked on are concluded.
The party’s chairman John Mbadi says that the party started a move three years back to reclaim several seats lost during the last general elections.
“We lost many members because our nominations had a lot of pitfalls. We started the journey to reclaim the lost seats immediately after the 2017 general elections.” Mbadi said.
Orange Democratic party got 33 seats less in 2017 elections compared to 2013 elections where the party managed to get 96 seats in the parliament.
The party’s chairman also reported that ODM has trained the National Elections Board (NEB) members early enough to constitute new rules that will make their nominations unblemished.
Those seeking to vie for the Members of County Assembly will have a minimum academic qualification of Bachelor’s Degree from a recognized institution to qualify for nominations. Mbadi explained the the task of the MCA’s is to play oversight roles of billions of money spent in the counties, hence they must have the idea of how budgets are done.
The party’s secretary general Edwin Sifuna added that ODM is committed to minimize issues of misrepresentations by some members, arguing that there were cases where some members of County Assembly had never stepped into the Assembly since they were nominated.
The move has caught many aspirants that have already declared their interests to vie for different County ward representative positions unaware.
