- Party to hold NEC, NGC and NDC meetings in Januray , February and March respectively.
- Party to conclude nominations by May.
Image: TONY WAFULA
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM party has unveiled back-to-back events as its strategy ahead of the 2022 elections.
Raila has lined up key party activities early next year that will culminate into his endorsement as the party’s flag bearer in March 2022.
His Christmas break ends early January, when he will preside over a crucial National Executive Committee meeting to deliberate on among other issues, the 2022 election and political formations.
The NEC is expected to ratify the decision to have the party formally join the Azimio La Umoja Movement.
The new political machine is billed as a behemoth, bringing together many political parties to make Raila's fifth run for State House a reality.
After the January NEC, the party's National Governing Council will convene in February to ratify the resolutions before the same are escalated to the delegates in March for endorsement.
On Monday, ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna confirmed the three top organs' meetings in the first quarter of 2022.
“In the first week of January, we will have our NEC followed by NGC in February and then NDC in March,” Sifuna said on the phone.
He said the party will use the first months of 2022 to pick candidates for various elective positions across the country.
According to Sifuna, who has also declared his candidature for Nairobi senator, ODM has already started the nomination process, encouraging consensus among aspirants.
“IEBC has allowed us to start nomination. For instance, in Narok East, we started with 12 aspirants and now we are down to three hopefuls,” Sifuna said.
He added: “The first method of nomination is consensus. In many areas, people are talking, consensus is going on.”
In the ODM’s plan of activities, opinion polls will be commissioned in February after civil servants eyeing elective posts resign.
According to the IEBC timeliness, persons seeking to run as independents are expected to resign from political parties by May 9, three months to the poll.
“Polling will start in February after civil servants have resigned. We will use an independent pollster to tell us the most popular.
“We will do a first poll in February, March and April. By May, all the tickets shall have been issued to the popular candidates,” Sifuna said.
The party has resorted to consensus to avert chaos and fallouts that usually characterise contested primaries and leave the party bleeding.
In the past primaries, there have been claims that certificates were issued to the highest bidders to the detriment of strong and popular candidates.
The issue of opinion polls has, however, received mixed reactions, with a number of lawmakers calling for use of multiple methods to arrive at candidates.
Bondo MP Gideon Ochanda said the party should not rely entirely on one method but employ multiple means.
“Somebody’s opinion in the morning when they wake up is very different in the evening. In the morning, they are still hopeful of having their meal, by evening, when they realise the day is gone, that opinion is different.
“What I think needs to be done is using multiple means so that one is used to verify the other,” Ochanda said.
Alego Usonga MP Sam Atandi welcomed consensus, urging aspirants to initiate the process at the grassroots level and stop giving Raila a 'headache'.
"We should not wait for Raila to help us in reaching consensus. Let us initiate it at our level. Don't insist on running and giving Raila unnecessary headache," Atandi said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)