On Monday August 16, the NRM Electoral Commission released guidelines that are meant to facilitate candidates and party returning officers at all levels go through a peaceful election.

The guidelines that were issued by commissioner Lydia Wanyoto who is also a Member of the East African Legislative Assembly read in part that candidates for Members of Parliament and District Chairperson are to have joint meetings.

In addition, Candidates for Chairperson LC I, LCIII, Sub County and District Councilors are to have separate meetings.

However in order to avoid clashes that would arise from scrambling for venues, all the candidates have been asked to hand in their programs to the district and sub county returning officers by August 18.

The guidelines further state that vote buying, although seen across the country in previous elections, is prohibited. A candidate who shall be found guilty of bribing voters and using bad language faces disciplinary action with the possibility of disqualification.

But the guidelines aside, it remains to be seen whether candidates will follow them.
In a related development, The Sunrise has learnt that NRM's electoral commission has started the process of assembling election materials for primaries in time.

The party structure elections were postponed thrice and in some areas people voted minus ballot papers just because the materials were not delivered in time.

According to commissioner Israel Kayonde, this time round the commission is working around the clock to deliver all materials on time so that elections can start early throughout the county on August 30.

Whereas the party has designated the period August 19 to 28, as the campaign period for nominated MPs and LCV chairmen, it is an open secret that campaigns kicked off around the country months ago. blog comments powered by Disqus

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