Nairobi — Orange Democratic Movement (Kenya) party has a problem. It craves power and it pines for authority but it has trouble getting them. It does not have a presidential candidate.

It has the support of the masses - as indicated by several opinion polls -- but it does not have a candidate who is acceptable to the whole country. All its luminaries are so unpopular that they keep getting less than a fifth of public support in all the opinion polls.

Opinion polls in Kenya are becoming so accurate and reliable that they could soon replace the ballot and save all of us the inconvenience of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, the violence and disagreeableness of campaigns, the tedium of polling and the back-breaking vote-counting.

Opinion polls are the elections of the future. They are lean, clean and efficient - quite unlike the path of destruction ODM-K has chosen to follow in picking its presidential candidate for this year's General Election.

ODM plans to ask nearly 500,000 people to decide who should be its candidate in 2007. It is populist, expensive and totally inefficient. One needs to only look around at the other parties to find wiser ways of picking a torchbearer.

The National Rainbow Coalition, which went into hiding as soon as it won the 2002 elections, has re-emerged in recent times to make its stand known. It shall not carry out nonsense nominations. Mr Kibaki is its candidate for the presidency in 2007 - unopposed.

The party's director of elections, Alex Mureithi, says other parties that wish to join the coalition to support his uncle are most welcome. The logic is easy to follow. You do not change a winning team.

So far, the Democratic Party of Kenya, which once toyed with the foolish idea of expelling its founding chairman and two-time presidential candidate, has seen the light and also declared that it is sticking with the winning guy: its presidential candidate is Mr Kibaki again.

The new kid on the block, Narc Kenya, is causing waves everywhere with its activities. It has been on a roll since it won three parliamentary seats in last year's by-elections in Saku, North Horr and Nakuru Town. With its assured popularity, it has declared that it is giving its presidential ticket to Mr Kibaki.

Even Ford People, of all parties, has decided that it will support Mr Kibaki's candidacy for the presidency. The Official Opposition as recognised by the Government - before the High Court changed all that - had indicated that it might not offer a candidate for president.

Its then chairman, Mr Nicholas Biwott, was reported as saying that he was a humble man who was uninterested in/unfit for the big office of president. And who do you think Kanu would have supported for the presidency? Mr Uhuru Kenyatta?

Everybody is scrambling for a piece of President Kibaki. Despite the rumours by political liars who imagine that the things he is doing are making him unpopular (such as appointing nine new members to the Electoral Commission of Kenya), the President's popularity is soaring.

Kenyans have realised that being handsome or loud or abusive have no bearing on getting the job done. It is just a matter of time before all the other parties - Ford Kenya, Sisi kwa Sisi and Shirikisho - also throw their weight behind Mr Kibaki, seeing that they have no hope of winning.

The truth is that Mr Kibaki has become so popular that he could run for election without a party platform and still win - if only the law allowed it.

It would be very sad indeed if ODM squandered its popularity by picking an unpopular leader as its candidate. For ODM to have a place at the bargaining table, it should move with dispatch to nominate Mr Kibaki as its presidential candidate. That way, it will neutralise the internal divisions that nominations will cause and be guaranteed of winning power come 2008.

And all that, without spending a single shilling, hurling an insult, or making a campaign trip. Nowadays, democracy does not have to be competition when it can be turned into consensus.

CODICIL: Politically Correct, having spoken the varnished truth for nine months, is now taking a permanent break from this space and will be migrating to www.pumbaf.com in pretty short order.