- The team comprises national elections board chairperson Judy Pareno, MP Jared Okelo and executive director Oduor Ong’wen.
- NEC will discuss the committee's recommendations during a retreat at the end of May.
Image: FILE
ODM has appointed a three-member committee to look into its nomination rules. The regulations have been cited for the party’s dismal performance in the last general elections.
The lean team comprising of the party’s National Elections Board chairperson Judy Pareno (nominated senator), Jared Okelo (Nyando MP) and executive director Oduor Ong’wen will fine-tune a task force report and give the final recommendation to the party NEC on how future nominations will be conducted.
The NEC will hold a retreat at the end of May to consider the recommendations from the Pareno-led committee.
Last year, the Orange party formed a task force headed by Catherine Mumma to review the process of party nominations and tasked it to come up with proposals on how best to conduct its internal polls.
The Mumma team yesterday presented their proposals to the NEC headed by chairman John Mbadi and attended by party leader Raila Odinga. The raft of proposals is on among others, the party structure, policies, conduct of primaries and grassroots elections.
The Pareno team will be discussing these proposals before submitting a final copy.
“The NEC also gave the nod for secretary general Edwin Sifuna and the national secretariat to start the preparations for grassroots elections to be held next year (2020) as per the provisions of the constitution of the party. The party holds grassroots elections after every five years,” director of communications Philip Etale said in a dispatch mailed to newsrooms.
The party’s dwindling strength in both the Senate and the National Assembly has been attributed to the chaotic nominations characterised by outright rigging which have seen a number of dejected potential candidates ditching the outfit and joining fringe parties.
In the last elections, the party’s numbers in both houses reduced compared to previous general elections.
After the 2017 polls, ODM managed a total of 76 MPs - elected and nominated – in the National Assembly, compared to other Nasa affiliate parties like Wiper with 23, ANC 14 and Ford-Kenya 13.
ODM’s numbers got thinner after losing two parliamentary seats in the Ugenya and Wajir West by-elections last month.
In the Senate, ODM has 20 senators, compared to three each for Wiper and ANC, and Ford-Kenya's Moses Wetang’ula.