Politics: Poor political strategy may have robbed Cord of win in election

[Kabaridi]

An inferior political strategy and poor financial organisation may have undermined the Coalition For Reforms and Democracy's chances in the March 4 General Election. Despite mobilising its support base to turn out and vote in Kenya's fifth presidential elections, the Cord team failed in monitoring of the election process including transmission of results and the tallying. And now the coalition's governors, senators and MPs are scheduled to attend a retreat to brainstorm on the aftermath of the elections which Prime Minister Raila Odinga lost to Jubilee's Uhuru Kenyatta.

Senior Cord members revealed that the party had no agents in many of the 34,000 polling centres around the country after a top official at the Prime Minister's Office tasked to hire poll monitors failed to do so. Gwassi MP John Mbadi claimed the absence of Cord agents in many polling centres locked their team out allowing opponents to manipulate results. "Someone decided that we needed no agents in Central region because Mr Odinga had no support there.

That was a big mistake," said Mr Mbadi. Mr Odinga had appointed Prof Larry Gumbe his chief agent to take charge of the other agents across the country. On the first and the second day of tallying at Bomas, the coalition kept a skeleton team of monitors at the centre which thinned down further the next day. "It is true we appeared ill prepared for the process. We have people amidst us who let us down and negligence was surely present," said Mr Mbadi. The MP and Homa Bay County women representative Ms Gladys Wanga who were not even the official party agents came in to initiate a parallel tallying process just hours before the final results were announced after realising the party had not tasked anyone to monitor tallying.

While the Jubilee coalition had mobilised over 100 temporary staff to support its chief presidential agent Fred Ngatia, other senior personnel had also been mobilised to support him. Former IEBC commissioners Davies Chirchir and Winnie Guchu were part of Mr Kenyatta's highly fancied team of poll staff at the Bomas of Kenya. Cord had initially hired space at the Tripuana hotel opposite the Bomas of Kenya for temporary use for the tallying period but vacated the venues for undisclosed reasons the following day. The coalition's two coordinating chairmen Franklin Bett and Gideon Ndambuki also occasionally stayed late at the tallying centre but the absence of qualified support staff handicapped their work. Now some MPs are calling for the overhaul of the ODM leadership, adding that some of them are responsible for the Cord loss. East African Legislative assembly MP Peter Muthuki also joined Mr Bett and Mr Ndambuki but the two appeared overwhelmed. "I have been here since the first day.

And I am shocked about what I am seeing. I can't believe this," Mr Muthuki said at the Bomas. Some MPs also complained that the presidential campaign team was incompetent. "Yes the PM's campaign secretariat was poor and so incompetent. They left the party's presidential agents without pay making them vulnerable to demands from opponents," said one Cord MP. On Sunday Suna East MP Junet Mohammed said organisational failure cost the party elections adding that improved planning in future would be of help. "The truth of the matter is that we were poorly organised and as such we left ourselves in the hands of forces beyond us," he stated.

SOurce: Poor political strategy may have robbed Cord of win in election - Politics - nation.co.ke

 

[mfianchi]

Sasa Kabaridi kwanini CORD wawe na maajenti kila sehemu ,wao waliamini tume ya uchaguzi ingefanya haki kumbe si hivyo na hao Jubilee kumbe walikuwa na ''siasa zao'' ndio maana wakatafuta wasaidizi zaidi ya 100,tumekuelewa mkuu chaguzi za kiafrika bila kuiba uraisi utausikia tu kwenye vijiwe,sasa nimeamini kumbe kulikuwa na uwizi wa waziwazi ,hivi karibuni nitamleta mjukuu wangu kusoma std I ili apate laptop za jua !

 

[Ab-Titchaz]

Sasa Kabaridi kwanini CORD wawe na maajenti kila sehemu ,wao waliamini tume ya uchaguzi ingefanya haki kumbe si hivyo na hao Jubilee kumbe walikuwa na ''siasa zao'' ndio maana wakatafuta wasaidizi zaidi ya 100,tumekuelewa mkuu chaguzi za kiafrika bila kuiba uraisi utausikia tu kwenye vijiwe,sasa nimeamini kumbe kulikuwa na uwizi wa waziwazi ,hivi karibuni nitamleta mjukuu wangu kusoma std I ili apate laptop za jua !

 

[Kabaridi]

Sasa Kabaridi kwanini CORD wawe na maajenti kila sehemu ,wao waliamini tume ya uchaguzi ingefanya haki kumbe si hivyo na hao Jubilee kumbe walikuwa na ''siasa zao'' ndio maana wakatafuta wasaidizi zaidi ya 100,tumekuelewa mkuu chaguzi za kiafrika bila kuiba uraisi utausikia tu kwenye vijiwe,sasa nimeamini kumbe kulikuwa na uwizi wa waziwazi ,hivi karibuni nitamleta mjukuu wangu kusoma std I ili apate laptop za jua !

kwa kikundi kama cord hatuwezi amini wanashindwa kupeleka maajenti kila jimbo kushuhudia shughuli ya upigaji kura. huenda ikawa walifanya hivyo maksudi wakidhani watageuza taswira hiyo kuwa kama ushaidi mahakamani. kimsingi these were and are still a desperate lot which I say without fear of contradiciton!

Kuhusu laptop, those are community projetcs ambayo inatendekea sana nchini. ikiwa umefanikiwa kutembelea shule nyingi mashinani utakuta miradi hii nyingi kule. kwa jubilee na manifesto yao ni kuwa pengine walikuwa wanatilia tu mkazo kwa jambo hilo. Good luck mlete mwanawe, the technical implementation that promise i am yet to see

 

[Koborer]

I think CORD were mainly done in by a marginally lower voter turnout in their strongholds save for Nyanza. Voter registration was also comparatively lower in their areas. Somebody forgot to mobilize wananchi to register in large numbers. Historically we have always seen large voter turnouts in many areas of central Kenya. Other Kenyans could borrow a leaf here.