ODM and DAP-K have entered a power sharing deal to field only their strong candidates to win the majority seats in Kakamega.
The new agreement that will see the two parties share power on a 50-50 basis saw DAP-K governor aspirant Ayub Savula drop out of the race to deputise ODM’s Fernandes Barasa.
Barasa will now be the Azimio la Umoja candidate in the race where he is facing competition from Senator Cleophas Malala of ANC.
In the arrangement, Vincent Mugabe, who was designated as Barasa’s deputy, has been issued with an ODM ticket to contest the Likuyani parliamentary seat.
Savula on Tuesday said negotiations were still ongoing to agree on which candidates should leave the race to improve chances of Azimio winning majority seats in Kakamega.
He said ODM had agreed to withdraw its candidate for Mumias East constituency Lukas Radoli in favour of DAP-K’s Peter Kalerwa in the spirit of give and take.
The Lugari MP, who is also DAP-K deputy party leader, said negotiations on who between ODM’s Anami Lisamula and DAP-K’s Justus Kizito should exit the Shinyalu parliamentary race are still on.
He said ODM will not field any MP, governor, women representative or senator candidates in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia counties which are reserved for DAP-K.
“We are going to conduct opinion polls to establish who is stronger and ask others to support the candidate," Savula said.
"We are doing this for the common good of the people. Fielding more than one candidate will give room to Kenya Kwanza,” he said.
This means more of the current aspirants from both ODM and DAP-K will have to drop from the race to try and consolidate votes for Azimio.
On Tuesday some DAP-K aspirants in Kakamega county threatened to ditch Azimio and back rivals if they are forced to drop their bids under the zoning arrangements in the coalition.
Savula said DAP-K had presented names of 547 aspirants to contest various seats in the country.
The Lugari lawmaker said he dropped from the race in the interest of uniting the country, adding that he had age advantage to contest later.
Supporters of Savula last week protested his decision to accept to deputise Barasa, threatening to switch their support to Kenya Kwanza alliance candidates.
The combined team of ODM and DAP-K under Azimio One Kenya will face off with the Kenya Kwanza alliance of UDA, Ford Kenya and ANC parties.
Other aspirants in the race are UDP leader Cyrus Jirongo and Metropol Corporation founder Samuel Omukoko who will run on Maendeleo Democratic Party ticket.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
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