Date of next polls remains August 8, 2017, says IEBC
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will stick to the August 8, 2017 date stipulated in the Constitution for the next General Election.
Commission Chairman Issack Hassan on Wednesday said unless Kenyans agreed to change it, the agency’s plans were based on that date.
“We are going by the Constitution. That is the position of the commission, which is thereby law,” he said.
If the polls are held in August, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Mr William Ruto, would not have completed their full five-year terms. Governors, senators, MPs and MCAs would also be affected.
Questions have been raised over the date, with a constitutional requirement that all elected leaders should serve for five years but given that the last election was on March 4, 2013, a five-year term will end some three months before a similar date in 2018.
ELECTION DAY
Article 101 (1) of the Constitution states: “A General Election of members of Parliament shall be held on the second Tuesday in August in every fifth year”, while Article 102 (1) says: “The term of each House of Parliament expires on the date of the next General Election.”
The choice of the last election day was a result of the failure by then President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to agree on a date even after a court ruling.
On Wednesday ay, Mr Hassan said changing the date was not in his mandate.
“It is only the politicians who can do so in line with the Constitution,” he said.
An attempt to do so would require Kenyans to go to a referendum.
Two initiatives to amend the Constitution through a referendum — Cord’s Okoa Kenya Campaign and the governors’ Pesa Mashinani — do not list the election date as one of the issues.
This story first appeared in the Daily Nation