By GILBERT WANDERA
Two candidates contesting for posts in this year's football elections have expressed frustrations over the delay in announcing the dates for the polls.
The candidates Sammy Sholei and Hussein Mohammed are also demanding that Football Kenya and Kenya Football Federation (KFF) both be dissolved and a neutral body be formed after the exercise.
According to Kenya Football Players Association (Kefopa) chairman Dan Shikanda, who read a joint statement signed by the two, they accused the Independent Electoral Board (IEB) of laxity in running the exercise.
They demanded that the board urgently publishes the electoral code indicating the date of elections, mode of the exercise as well as eligibility of candidates.
"We want polls that have clear guidelines which make it free and fair and not just being used to rubber-stamp false leadership into the minds of football stakeholders and the world," said Shikanda.
The candidates also demanded that the board makes it clear under, which constitution the elections will be held under since FKL is a limited company.
They were apparently reacting to a statement by Leodegar Tenga to the effect that elections will be held under the FKL statutes since it is the body recognised by world body Fifa.
IEB secretariat
The two contestants are also demanding the IEB to set up a secretariat as soon as possible for ease of communication between itself and the candidates.
"We believe that by addressing this issues, the elections will be free and fair and coming after a long time, we can have officials who are credible to run the sport," the statement read further.
Contacted, IEB boss Peter Ogonji insisted t they are on schedule and asked the candidates to be patient as they work on the electoral code.
Call candidates
"We are well within our schedule as per our mandate by Fifa. Everything is working out well and we will soon call the candidates to explain to them what we are doing," he said.
Ogonji said the code is also in the process of being formulated, but could not say when it will be released.
He also denied accusations of bias insisting that they remain independent of any influence from those interested in various positions during the polls.
"Plans are on-going to establish our secretariat and once this is done, all candidates will know where to find us," he said.
This is the second time that candidates for the polls are expressing concern over the apparent delay in the process expected to end in April.
Source: The Standard | Online Edition
0 comments:
Post a Comment