The Electoral Commission has disqualified the candidates for the ruling NRM party and opposition political party, DP who had been contesting for the Busia district chairperson seat.
Electoral Commission nullified the nomination of Deogratius Njoki, the DP candidate and Paul Oguttu Boniface of the NRM due to the inconsistencies in the names submitted in their nomination paperwork and those in other requisite documents.
In a letter written to Njoki by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Justice Simon Byabakama, he said that the names ‘Hasubi Deogratius Njoki’ under which their candidate was nominated are different from the names in the national voters’ register.
Justice Byabakama faulted Njoki for failure to lodge to the Commission documentation showing that he had changed his particulars from Hasubi Deogratius to Hasubi Deogratius Njoki, prior to the update of the National Voters Register for Busia electoral district.
“Following the said change with National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), you ought to have disclosed the changes/corrected particulars in the CLN Form 10 provided by the Electoral Commission for purpose of correction of the particulars during the display exercise conducted under Section 25 of the Electoral Commission Act, Cap 140 and communicated officially to the EC by NIRA,” Justice Byabakama said in the letter.
Electoral Commission states that by failing to do this, Njoki “did not comply with the procedure and time frame of particulars under the electoral laws”.
“The Commission under MIN CM360/2018 resolved that the person nominated under the names Hasubi Deogratius Njoki is not a registered voter under the National Voters Register and thus, overturned the Returning Officer’s decision to have you nominated for the Busia district chairperson elective position”.
The letter is copied to the NRM Secretary General, the Democratic Party Secretary General and the Busia district Returning Officer.
Relatedly, the Electoral Commission also overturned the nomination of Oguttu Boniface Paul, the candidate for the NRM for similar reasons.
In a November 23 letter addressed to the Democratic Party Secretary General, Gerand Siranda, the Electoral Commission Chairman said Oguttu’s nomination was cancelled “on grounds that the names in the nomination papers presented during the nomination do not match the names on the requisite academic documents accompanying his nomination papers”.
This followed a complaint raised to the EC in which DP was contesting the eligibility of Oguttu.
The unprecedented development leaves the race for the Busia district chairperson seat to the three remaining Independent candidates; Chrispus Bwire, Tony Ojambo and Geoffrey Wandera. Polling is scheduled for next week on Wednesday.
