Kenya faces political uncertainty after vote count ends

30 Octobre 2017

Nairobi, Kenya, October 30 (Infosplusgabon) - Kenyans brace for an uncertain week on Monday after the end of vote counting and scrutiny from Thursday's presidential vote which, according to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), returned a 42% turnout, based on a count of votes from 266 constituencies.

IEBC Commissioners, who have been meeting for days to decide on the fate of 25 constituencies where no election took place, are expected to declare their next step on whether to announce President Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of the vote on Monday.

"The process we are carrying out is above board," IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said on Sunday, when asked to declare whether the vote tallying was carried out properly and why Kenyatta's vote was way above the initial voter turnout of 6.5 million.

Local civil society activist, Ndung'u Wainaina, said the IEBC had failed to provide accurate figures on the results from the electronic voter identification devices, which are programmed to provide accurate figures of voters taking part in an election before vote counting begins.

At the close of voting on Thursday, the IEBC Chairman, said the voter turnout was 48%, causing confusion.

At 48% turnout, the number of people voting would have been at 9.1 million, a doubtful figure, given many of the 40,833 polling stations remained nearly empty most of the day on Thursday, 26 October.

"The team picked a snapshot assessment for the purpose of getting the best-case scenario," Chebukati said, defending the earlier projection of 48% turnout announced by close of voting.

According to the IEBC, 33,140 voter identification devices had a list of 16 million voters and 40.4% were verified by the devices.

The devices are part of an electronic system of managing the elections to avoid fraud also known as the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS), comprising biometric voter identification devices, whose aim is to avoid over voting.

The IEBC Chairman said within an hour before the polls closed that 4,457,458 people had showed to the polling centres.

The IEBC Chairman said also said 7,573,903 voters participated in the elections, accounting for the 42% turnout.

"We are getting correct results using the KIEMS. The logs do not show us the voters identified through manual registers. Please avoid speculation," Chebukati said.

The electoral body is expected to decide whether it would proceed with the declaration of the results without voting in 25 constituencies in Nyanza, Western Kenya.

President Kenyatta is leading the vote with 7.48 million votes, equivalent to 98.3% of the vote.

The constitution requires an election to be done in 290 constituencies and the winner declared after all the results are counted and verified.

There is a contest as to whether elections took place in two of the 27 constituencies where no elections were organised and no distribution of ballot papers took place.

Earlier, the main opposition National Super Alliance  (NASA) declared it would declare its leader Raila Odinga president if President Kenyatta is declared President.

The IEBC Chairman said he was now satisfied with the conduct of the elections after "his questions were answered" and declared the elections were conducted fairly.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/OIT/GABON 2017

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