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{
    "id": 576298,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/576298/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 173,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "an emotive issue. I am just worried if there will be sufficient time and the political implications if we were to, for example, have commissioners in office by then. So, even as we will be going to the Third Reading - hoping that this House will be able to pass this Bill in the Second Reading and approve it to the Third Reading - I would request my good friend Hon. David Ochieng to look at the political implications with regard to what it will mean. That is if we will have new commissioners who will hardly be in office for six months conducting elections. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you being who you are - a lawyer by training - you know that elections are more of a political process than a legal one. So, I think those implications need to be put on the table. I also feel that the issues that were raised by the Leader of the Majority Party should not be dismissed before-hand. We need wider consultations. Most importantly, there are the implications of Article 117 of the Constitution. I would think that in so far as this proposed amendment seeks to harmonize that, I think it is a good amendment. But let us exercise our minds to the wider implications. Let us not concentrate only on the legal, but also the political and social implications so that we do not get into a process which will cure one thing, while opening a new set of wounds and opening points of confrontations. I can tell you for a fact that the appointment of IEBC commissioners is always a very big political process and all the major political players in the country will have to exercise their minds to that. I would personally be very uncomfortable with new commissioners conducting the 2017 elections. So, even as we debate this important proposed amendment, let us also seriously think about the implications. It may be good to say that we can extend the terms of the current commissioners, but how is the issue going to be? What are the implications? What about the vested interests that will definitely rear their heads when we start considering the issue of extending the terms of the current commissioners? What if we went the route of appointing new commissioners? As it stands, I would request that we give deep thoughts to the implications of this amendment in totality, before we decide. It is a good thing on paper and I would personally prefer an election date in December, but what are the implications. We need to look at the wider picture before we eventually agree to go in that direction as a House. I thank you."
}