Jubilee Party's digital membership card popularly known as the smart card. Photo/ capitalfm.co.ke
The debate on whether to use the smart cards or the national identity cards (IDs) during nominations has pitted Jubilee Party parliamentary aspirants in Nyali constituency in two different camps.The Ashiraf Bayusuf team prefers the use of the smart cards whereas his rival, Ali Noor’s camp wants IDs used in the upcoming primaries.Efforts by the party’s Mombasa County gubernatorial aspirant Suleiman Shahbal to get the two to agree on which method to use did not yield fruit.Bayusuf’s argument is that the use of IDs would give room to intruders to penetrate the nominations.He says he fears rival parties could influence the choice of Jubilee candidate thereby jeopardise their chances of clinching the seat in the August 8 general election. “Why is he objecting to the use of cards? What’s he up to? It’s only through the card that genuine members will be identified and allowed to nominate,” Bayusuf told the Star on the phone on Tuesday.Noor, on the other hand, says even with the use of the national ID, it is still easier to weed out non-members and thus bar them from participating in the exercise.Bayusuf now wants the party’s secretary general Raphael Tuju to intervene and resolve the stalemate.