And will Ruto have to join TNA if he wants to be Uhuru's presidential running mate in the March 4, 2013 election? According to the template of the presidential ballot paper in the elections regulations, the presidential candidate and his running mate share one symbol.
That means that Uhuru and Ruto will have to use either the TNA symbol, the URP symbol, or another symbol if they run together.
That would indicate there will have to be a merger of Uhuru's TNA party and Ruto's URP, or the formation of a totally new political outfit. Or Ruto would have to join TNA to run with Uhuru.
Kennedy Masime, the Elections Observation Group chairman, said the layout of the ballot paper in the Elections Regulations and Political Parties Act in effect forces parties to merge rather than to form coalitions.
“There is no way it can happen that one ticket bears two different symbols. The law cannot submit division of a ticket to reflect a coalition. It essentially means that one partner must agree to join the other’s ticket. So in effect, I think it is just a merger,” said Masime.
The Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission has set December 4 as the deadline for political parties that are planning pre-election coalitions to deposit their agreements with the Registrar of Political Parties.
But it is not clear whether the IEBC and Registrar of Political Parties would be willing to change the appearance of the ballot paper at this late stage.
IEBC is yet to clarify whether parties that enter into pre-election coalitions will be required to submit fresh symbols along with their agreements.
IEBC vice chairperson Lillian Mahiri-Zaja on Monday declined to comment and referred The Star to the Registrar of Political parties.
“I know the independent candidates are supposed to submit their symbols but the Registrar of Political Parties is better placed to speak on that matter,” said Mahiri-Zaja.
Acting Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u said the Political Parties Act did not allow more than one symbol for one ticket.
“By the reading of the Political Parties Act, it is only the parties that ought to have symbols. There is no mention of candidates having symbols,” the registrar said.
Election experts are now warning that the gap in the law could block all joint presidential tickets and undermine the coalitions being crafted by political parties.
According to Form 14 of the Election Regulations, the ballot paper will bear the party or candidate's symbol in the first column. The second column will have the name and a photo of the presidential candidate while the third column will bear the name and portrait of deputy presidential candidate.
Voters will then mark the fourth column with a tick, a cross or a thumb print to show their preferred candidates for president and deputy president. It will not be possible for a voter to tick more than one line.
There are also fears that this could result in an unacceptable number of spoilt votes unless there is thorough voter education.
Uninformed voters might try and choose one presidential candidate but another deputy presidential candidate who belongs to a different ticket.
Speaking at an East African election experts’ forum on Monday, Rwandan electoral secretary Charles Munyaneza and the Tanzanian registrar of political parties John Tendwa called for thorough civic education ahead of the polls.
“It is important we emphasize civic and voter education which will not only focus on the voter but on the politicians as well,” Munyaneza said.
Felix Odhiambo of the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa says that some parties that are currently engaged in coalition talks risk losing their identity.
He says both the Election Act 2011 and the Political Parties Act 2011 do not envisage party nominations or elections within a coalition.
He said there was an ambiguity in that the Political Parties Act allows parties to notify the registrar of political parties of their coalition.
The Election Act 2011 has outlawed the corporate membership that political parties perfected in the 2002 and 2007 elections. The Act does not contemplate joint nominations by political parties.
It also does not envisage a joint presidential ticket with candidates from different political parties. There are other administrative issues that could make it hard for pre-election coalitions.
It is not clear how the IEBC will redesign the ballot paper; who will sign the nomination certificates in the event that two parties go into a coalition; and which party symbol will be used in the election in the event of a coalition.
The Star
