Kenya: Heed Advice On General Election Date
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is proposing that the General Election be held before the end of this year.
The commission will on Friday ask President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to dissolve the Grand Coalition Government by October so that the polls can be conducted before next January.
We believe this is a proposal that the two principals should consider very seriously.
When the High Court ruled that the present Parliament should serve out a full five-year term -- pushing back the poll date to March 2013 -- it also provided a window for elections this year if the President and the Prime Minister agreed to dissolve the coalition government.
We would have liked that the calendar given by the Constitution for elections in August every five years be respected, but acknowledge that delays in implementation make August this year impossible.
However, pushing the polls back to March next year will amount to buying unjustified extra time for MPs and a government voted in for five years.
Any manoeuvre to extend the life of the 10th Parliament beyond five years from the time it was elected, not from the time it was sworn in, defrauds the electorate. Therefore, we welcome the move by the IEBC.
It gives the President and the Prime Minister the opportunity to consider alternatives to the voices of sitting parliamentarians, who would, of course, want to extend their terms.
The President and the Prime Minister must seize the moment and settle the issue of the election date once and for all.
A few things will still need to be sorted out. For one, the August date for the subsequent elections must still be respected, and must be reinforced in the law to curb potential for mischief.
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