Calls for calm ahead of Kenya’s final poll results
Opposition says system hacked
Nairobi – Foreign observers deployed to oversee Kenya’s general elections called for patience yesterday while votes from Tuesday’s election were still being counted, as accusations by the opposition of rigging sparked angry protests.
This came as Kenya’s electoral commission said it only expects all presidential results to arrive at the national tallying centre by midday today for validation, and called for “restraint” from political parties.
“We are working hard to ensure that we get the final results within the shortest time possible. We expect that all the presidential results ... will reach the national tallying centre by 12pm tomorrow (Friday),” Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chair Wafula Chebukati told a press conference.
Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who is trailing incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta, claimed massive hacking of an electronic system for sending votes to a national tallying centre in Nairobi.
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry, leading an observer team from the Carter Centre, expressed confidence in the integrity of the system, introduced in a bid to avoid fraud in a country prone to post-poll violence.
“We believe the IEBC put in place a detailed, transparent process of voting, counting, reporting and securing the vote, all of which lends significant credibility and accountability,” Kerry told a press conference.
Polling officers have been sending results electronically to Nairobi, which are showing up in real time on a public website, but these need to be backed up with forms signed by them and party agents in each of the 40 883 polling stations.
Odinga, aside from claiming the electronic results are a “sham”, has complained about delays in the sending through of the forms, further fuelling suspicion about manipulation.
Kerry said his observer team had witnessed party agents counting ballots together, and deciding together which were valid or not before signing off on final tallies.
“All of this provides an extensive traceable trail of agreement by many parties on the paper balloting process and therefore on the outcome,” he said.
Some 400 international observers were present for Tuesday’s vote, and their team leaders from the African Union, Commonwealth and European Union called for calm.
Ghanaian former president John Mahama, who is leading the Commonwealth delegation, urged Kenyans to give the IEBC “proper time and space to complete the results process with necessary due diligence”.