[A file photo of Thirdway Alliance Presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot. Raila Odinag wants him included in the polls. Courtesy: Daily Nation]
Opposition coalition NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga has reiterated the need to include Thirdway Alliance presidential flag Ekuru Aukot bearer in the race for the October 26 repeat elections.
Aukot is pushing for his name to be included in the presidential ballot paper, despite conceding defeat during the August polls when President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner by IEBC.
He has since filed a petition in the High Court, seeking to have IEBC compelled to include his name among the presidential candidates.
In his submissions to the matter, NASA leader Raila Odinga noted that it was prudent to have Aukot vie for the top seat since the Supreme Court nullified the entire presidential election and thus all the candidates who participated ought to be in the re-run.
“In the event the determination and the Constitution presupposes that all persons who participated in the nullified presidential election of August 8, 2017 did not, in the eyes of the law, participate in the said presidential elections at all and are accordingly entitled to the opportunity offered by the constitution within the meaning to do so in the upcoming presidential election now scheduled for October 26, 2017,” Raila said.
IEBC, however, says that the race should be limited to the petitioner and the president-elect.
The commission argued that the remaining candidates who do not contest the election outcome should be assumed to have either conceded defeat or accepted the election outcome.