The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has published the rules for submission of party lists for the special seats requiring parties to distribute the positions across ethnic groups and gender.
“A party must provide a party definition of any other ‘special interests’ in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. One nominee cannot represent more than one special interest. The party list must indicate the special interest that each nominee represents,” the rules state.
Each party participating in the General Election is supposed to submit 12 names of people to be considered for nomination as MPs, 16 names for senate women positions and two for youth senate positions.
The rules require parties to distribute the positions across the ethnic groups in the country and will alternate between male and female candidates where a common list of both sexes is allowed.
Though the special seats had been initially reserved for special interest groups only, MPs amended the Elections Act to allow the losers at party primaries as well as presidential aspirants to be included in the list.
The party lists of special seats for marginalised groups at the county assembly will have eight names. Based on the revised legal time frames, IEBC has directed parties to submit the lists before the nomination exercise starts on January 29.
“The nominees to the party list shall have similar qualifications as those required for candidates contesting elections as members of Parliament and in accordance with Article 99 of the Constitution,” IEBC said.
