CANDIDATES eyeing the chair of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission will be vetted during marathon interviews this morning. Parliamentary Secretary Committee chairman on constitutional review Abdikadir Mohamed said yesterday national interests and professionalism will be key in picking the man or woman to head the electoral agency.
The PSC boss said delays in establishing an electoral body was a recipe for disaster and promised his team will conclude the selection without delay. Panelists will start inter-views at 9 30am, adding that the exercise could be extended to tomorrow. We are going to be very keen, there will be no hurry in interviewing, because we want a final but acceptable process today,” “Everything will be done Abdikadir said. He refused to release details of the six new candidates to be interviewed.
Abdikadir says Interviewers will be very keen for the process to give the agency a strong and competent leader. In the last process, PSC members joined MPs in shooting down their own report from the floor of Parliament even after voting For the same at the recruitment panel. The new IIEC boss will take over the country’s electoral reforms process together with overseeing an anticipated referendum on the constitution which is expected within 20 months and also oversee fresh registration of voters. Several lawyers applied for the re-advertised job of chairman after MP’s rejected lawyer Cecil Miller. Among the tap candidates for the race are former National Assembly speaker Francis Ole Kaparo and former Executive Director of the Institute of Education in Democracy Koki Mali.
But Abdikadir said, the committee will decide today, eluded,” he said, whether those interviewed previously will also take a members to participate in repeat interview today.
