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{
    "id": 1404611,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1404611/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 395,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ruaraka, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. TJ Kajwang’",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "An election is something which requires practitioners in election matters. We need to recognise that as we have done since the introduction of multiparty politics. They have developed a body of political parties that are drawing consensus around them to be able to practise in this field of democracy and political parties. If these people are recognised in terms of their role in defining the referee, you will have very few complaints. However, if you decide that these people are not practitioners and come from the public service or other entities which have nothing to do with the election, you will still have problems. This Bill is saying that there is an expanded space for practitioners in this field. That is what happens in mature democracies, that is the American and English experience. There would be one, two or three political parties that the country would be gravitating around. If those people are aware and comfortable or they can give confidence in how the referee is chosen, there would be no problem. Everybody else, including some parties here, which are non-parliamentary as I am told, would want to have a bite of the cherry, but Parliamentary parties must be parliamentary parties. The Leader of the Minority Party used the term “parliamentary”, but did not define it. Do not assume anything. Define “parliamentary parties” in the manner in which it is in this Report. Define “parliamentary parties” to mean parties in the House, either minority or majority, making Government or on the minority side. However, if you leave it that way and define it in the Standing Orders, then you have a problem. This is because the Standing Orders are unable to define with legislative authority what those are. The courts have been very interactive in making decisions, but they are not practitioners in this province we call politics. They have a problem with the chairperson. Hon. Opiyo Wandayi, through the Speaker, looking at the manner in which the original Bill was done, you would have created a very big issue of somebody called the ‘chairperson’."
}