Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar at a past event. [Photo: Omar Hassan/ twitter.com]
Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar is confident of unseating his rival Governor Hassan Joho in the forthcoming August polls.
Omar said Joho's popularity in the county has waned over time due to his administration's poor performance since coming into power in 2013.
“The governor has no development track record of any kind and he should have learnt that the people will vote him out early in the morning on August 8," Omar told the Nation on the phone.
He said the recent loss of several ward representatives in the party primaries was a clear sign that Joho will also lose in the upcoming general election.
"How can the people vote the soldiers out and not kick out the general? The MCAs being voted out was just a curtain raiser on what will happen on August 8,” the Wiper secretary general said.
"Now, how can the voters kick his MCAs out and (be expected) to vote for him? It’s not practical,” he added.
The Wiper governor aspirant at the same time poked holes in ODM party's call for the six-piece voting formula.
He said the region's politics have changed since the 2013 polls and it's no longer an ODM zone.
"A lot has changed and the party no longer has the same [support]. In fact, if anything, all its candidates will lose terribly and the call is to colour the party and seek people’s sympathy,” he said.
He said it is "wrong for leaders to herd people into party slogans to get sympathy" in the name of the six-piece pattern.
“It is a scheme to get voters’ sympathy, otherwise they will not win a single seat in Mombasa. It’s not business as usual. It’s not 2013,” he added.
His remarks come after ODM leader Raila Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka of Wiper differed over the six-piece voting formula.