ODM Leaders Decry Disparities Ahead of Grassroot Elections, Reveal Private Messages

With just a day left to the Raila-led Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party grassroots elections, a section of leaders expressed their worries on the matters arising before the big day.

ODM leaders in Mombasa County, who are vying for various positions, decried that there is no transparency on how the election will be conducted revealing that with barely 24 hours to the exercise, they are still not aware of the polling stations where the elections would be conducted. They also claimed that the voting list was not yet available.

According to the leaders, the party and election commissioners who are supposed to ensure that plans for the elections are underway are still silent despite the time constraint.

“We still don’t know which polling stations we will use. There is no register and there is no party list yet,” one of the leaders revealed.

The leaders have read malice in the elections after revealing that individuals are being sent messages personally on where to vote. According to them, they want the process to be transparent and don’t understand why people have to be sent personal messages.

“We are hearing that they are sending people messages. What we don’t know is if they will be sending everyone messages or they are sending them to the designated few,” another leader decried.

Apart from the secret messages, the leaders have also revealed that election commissioners were changed and are now calling on the party leadership to explain why the changes were made and what criteria they used to change the leaders.

The leaders have expressed worry that what is happening now is creating room for chaos on Wednesday, something they are strongly against.

“We don’t want these elections to be marred with chaos. We want a peaceful, fair, and transparent election. That is why we are calling on the party to make everything clear,” the leaders continued.

Meanwhile, ODM leaders in Kilifi assured members of free, fair, and transparent elections. They have directed all leaders with questions to go to the party offices physically.

The grassroots elections will be taking place in all 47 counties across the country.

In a press statement on Monday, the ODM National Elections Coordinating Committee (NECC) chairperson Emily Awita confirmed the readiness and measures put in place to ensure the much-anticipated exercise which aims at having new office bearers elected takes place smoothly.