A politician who wanted to vie for the Ugenya parliamentary by elections on ODM ticket has ditched the party in protest after a former area legislator was granted direct ticket.
Daniel Juma, said though he had options to challenge the party decision through both the party tribunal and the registrar of political parties, he had chosen not to do so because he respected the party leader, Raila Odinga.
He said that he was exploring alternative avenues to enable him vie for the seat during the by-elections slated for 5th April, 2019. The by-elections were occasioned by the nullification of the election of Christopher Karan as the MP after his predecessor, David Ochieng moved to court to challenge his win.
Juma described as unfair the decision by ODM to grant Karan direct nomination ticket, adding that it was unfair and infringed on his constitutional right as a member of the party.
“I realised that there is no guarantee that I will ever reach the ballot even in future election if the trend of awarding direct nominations are allowed to persist in the party,” he said in a statement to journalists Saturday.
However, he did not indicate the party he was joining or whether he will vie for the seat as an independent candidate.
ODM and the Movement for Democracy and Growth (MDG) had already nominated Karan and David Ochieng respectively, in line with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s deadline that set 21st January, 2019 as the deadline for the political parties to submit lusts of parties’ candidates.
By Philip Onyango
