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{
    "id": 657801,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/657801/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 730,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gichigi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1909,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kamunye Gichigi",
        "slug": "samuel-kamunye-gichigi"
    },
    "content": "Let them come up with a good course for new MPs and specific ones for various committees such as the Departmental Committee on Energy and Budget and Appropriations Committee. We should be trained so that we carry out our constitutional mandate competently because we are not holding it for lack of capacity. I support the issue of limiting the number of voters in a polling station. A total of 700 voters is okay rather than have long queues that can easily bring chaos or lead to people being barred from voting because of time lapse. Clause 14 talks of resignation of public officers one year before the elections. We need serious clarity on this. Some of us were forced to resign from our public positions much earlier, then the elections was shifted to December and then to March. As we debate on the date of election, we know that tentatively it is in August. The idea of having a Bill to have it shifted to December, whether the period is five years or four years and six months needs clarity. It will be very unfair to tell people to resign a year before August of this year only for the election to be shifted to December or March 2018. So, I do not think that this is a good provision, the six months should remain. Clause 21 on the stay of the elections pending appeal to the Court of Appeal is also a good one. Instead of somebody being sworn in here and yet a petition is pending, there should be a stay as proposed. As I wind up, Clause 23 is also a good one as it brings clarity where an election court finds that one of the candidates had committed an election offence. It is clear how it sends its report to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who is then supposed to investigate and determine whether an offence has been committed and proceed to either charge or dismiss that particular report. I think it is a good provision. Finally, on clause 36 on the limitation of boundaries, the proposal that the factor of population needs to be emphasized is also a good one."
}