Prime Minister Raila Odinga has accused Jubilee government of coercing opposition MPs to amend the election laws in parliament.
Raila said the presence of GSU officers around the Parliament buildings is a form of intimidation aimed at scaring the legislators to succumb to what Jubilee wants changed in the laws.
He said the opposition MPs will not allow any amendment proposed by Jubilee side of parliament.
“No amount of intimidation will make us change our mind. Don’t think sending security officers around parliament will do anything,” Raila said.
The MPs seek to change the law to give room for the IEBC to use other means of identification of voters and transmission of results where technology fails.
The opposition chief said the Joint Select Parliamentary Committee on Electoral reforms, whose mandate was to oversee the making of the new laws, agreed and passed the laws without any amendments and wondered why the amendments were being slotted in by Jubilee at the tail end.
Raila said the move by Jubilee MPs to push for the amendments in the electoral laws is a clear indication that Jubilee had sensed an early defeat in the next year’s polls.
“We were together when the select committee members formulated and unanimously agreed to pass the laws without putting a comma or full stop. Why is Jubilee making a sharp about-turn in the last minute if this does not mean it has sensed a defeat in the upcoming elections?” Raila asked.
He was addressing a group of Luo elders led by the council chairman Opiyo Otondi during the ongoing Luo cultural festival in Homa Bay town on Tuesday.
Raila urged the opposition MPs to soldier on in rejecting the proposed amendments in totality.
He assured Cord supporters and MPs that Jubilee plan to amend the electoral laws is doomed to fail as they would pull forces to curtail such a move.
“Never shall we accept any skewed plot to make changes to the electoral laws because the work ended with the Parliamentary Select team,” he added.
Raila was flanked by Governors Josephat Nanok (Turkana), Cyprian Awiti (Homa Bay),Cornel Rasanga(Siaya), Okoth Obado(Migori) and Kisumu Senator Anyang’ Nyong’o and Homa Bay Deputy Governor Hamilton Orata.
Nanok said Jubilee has lost political ground and was trying all means to cling to power.
“All the noise you hear from Jubilee side is a noise of somebody who has lost political ground. We won’t allow them,” Nanok said.
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