[Gusii ODM leaders in a past campaign trail. The party could lose significant number of seats to Independents in Nyanza according to Richard Bitange. Photo/Hivisasa.com]
Richard Bitange, a don at Egerton University says ODM party will lose significantly in its Nyanza stronghold as a protest on shambolic party primaries.
The party is yet to recover from an aftermath of party primaries that saw perceived winners defect and run as independents.
Among those who protested the outcome of primaries include James Gesami who was running as Nyamira governor, Jack Ranguma (Kisumu), Nicholas Gumbo (Siaya), Jim Akali (Mbita) just to mention but a few.
“I really monitored the elections but they were substandard. Mostly, those who won apparently would have lost and this should be not good news,” he said.
“We are expecting a scenario where hundreds of Independents especially from Nyanza and even I Jubilee strongholds win. It is going to be general discipline to political parties.”
Registrar of political parties’ office was flocked by hundreds of aspirants who felt shortchanged in party primaries.
Although he has since admitted that all was not well, Odinga admitted that the party faced a host of challenges during its nominations.