By Ernest Cornel
Wiper will not sign a pact for joint nominations under the National Super Alliance (Nasa), secretary general Hassan Omar has said.
The Mombasa Senator said the matter is being pushed by those – largely Governors – who fear defeat during the August 8 polls.
Omar said governors must not hide under Nasa in attempts to escape the wrath of voters who are tired of their ‘failures’.
“Wiper has not ratified any decision on joint nominations. I will not append my signature on such a plan,” he said on Friday.
He said the fear being propagated that Nasa will lose to Jubilee if they field candidates separately in the polls is myopic.
“Wiper may go it alone. Holding joint nominations is similar to the dissolution of parties or coalitions,” Omar said in Mombasa.
He urged governors to stop calling Nasa to fix their mistakes “which created a vacuum for Jubilee to field candidates”.
James Orengo, chairman Nasa national coordinating committee, said they are considering joint nominations in certain counties.
He said the coalition is yet to agree on the proposal but talks on the same are in progress among the committee members.
According to Orengo, Nairobi and Mombasa are among counties where Nasa is contemplating to field one candidate against Jubilee.
But Omar said that they have not reached such consensus, adding that they can still beat Jubilee even if two candidates are fielded.
He said the formula worked in Mombasa in 2013 when Hassan Joho beat Suleiman Shahbal -then of Wiper- in the governor race.
Joho and Shahbal were both affiliated to Cord during the said election, which also attracted Abdalla Hemed of the defunct TNA.
But statistics show that if Cord could have had fielded one candidate in some areas, they would have easily trounced Jubilee.
The legislator further denied sabotaging ODM’s plans to win seats in some of the Coast counties.
More on this: NASA deal puts ODM, Wiper in catch-22 in Mombasa race
On matters of IEBC’s preparedness for the August vote, Omar asked the commission to respond to questions raised over the same.
This follows the demands in a February 20 letter to the commission which questioned their preparedness towards the general election.
In the letter, NASA wants IEBC to explain the external interface connected to the poll database.
They want the identity of the users and the purpose of the same.
“Do these include NIS, Jubilee Party, the Immigration department and other third parties?” the letter to IEBC says in part.
Omar said Kenyans are anxious if the electoral agency will hold free, fair and transparent polls.
“The chair should not respond to such pertinent issues on public forums. Will not accept a badly managed election,” he said.
Omar said the opposition will not accept anything short of an electronic voting system in the management of the polls.
“In 2007 and 2013, systems were designed to fail. Ghana’s electoral model should be adopted to avoid rigging,” the legislator said.
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