As the next election beckons, political parties are walking a tight path in regards to nominations for various positions.
The exercise has in the past been marred by chaos and confusion leading to legal battles, cancellations, repeats and even direct nomination to beat tight Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission timelines.
However, the lack of a foolproof party membership register at the Registrar of Political Parties office has exacerbated it, breeding mischief by party mandarins.
ODM has on its part announced measures to rein in this conundrum to include multiple methods as circumstances may dictate.
Apart from the usual universal suffrage, the party wants to use consensus, direct ticketing and delegate system too.
Their decision is to be anchored on scientific opinion polls to be conducted and deployed from January next year.
It also seeks to move its nomination exercise much closer to the IEBC deadline to forestall allegiance shifting though this may not be the cure for disgruntlement.
Big parties such as ODM and UDA with strident competitions in places are strong to handle their nominations with much care to avert backlash.
A good example is the Ruaraka constituency where the ODM party used direct nomination in 2017 but is today having it hard to handle formidable candidates like former Kasarani MP William Omondi.
Any decision taken must thus hinge on fairness and transparency to avert ugly fallout and diminished parliamentary and other representations.
The writer is an economic and political analyst
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
