Chaos around Kenya polls

RERUN: NOT ENOUGH TIME TO IRON OUT PROBLEMS Supreme Court has yet to deliver full judgment on previous election results.

Doubts are growing over Kenya’s ability to hold a rerun of its presidential election in just one month as key players remain unable to agree on how to conduct a credible vote, analysts say. Bickering on all sides and confusion over the process have only increased as the clock ticks down to the October 17 vote, called after the Supreme Court annulled the initial August election, citing widespread irregularities.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has vowed to boycott the poll if a list of demands are not met. Yesterday, he launched a nationwide campaign “against any election” run by the current electoral commission (IEBC), which he accuses of rigging the first poll.

“The challenges are pretty extraordinary,” said John Githongo, a prominent anticorruption campaigner in Kenya, who said he believed the election date “does not seem feasible because we are asking people who have failed calamitously to run an election after such a short time”.

A key hurdle is that the Supreme Court has yet to deliver its full judgment detailing why exactly it decided to annul President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory.

Chief Justice David Maraga mentioned only “irregularities and illegalities”, notably in the transmission of election results.

The court has until September 22 to deliver the full ruling, which would give the IEBC little time to make any necessary changes.

“It is very uncertain,” said Nic Cheeseman, a professor of African politics at the University of Birmingham in England.

“We don’t know if the Supreme Court is going to directly impugn any of the individuals in the IEBC. Will they have to be replaced? If so, how will that be done in the time frame?”

In the absence of the judgment, the electoral commission has pushed forward with plans for a new election, dismissing opposition calls to sack its top officials. – AFP