Anyone else here as worried as I about the three day tallying of election results? I have been searching every website and blog and the violence and lotting and stoning of vehicles seems to be getting much worse because of the delay.

I can certainly understand with no electronic voting how tallying would take a lot longer than other places. However, three days also allows for "loss" of votes, shredding, etc.

I can only hope they declare a winner today and that it is an HONEST declaration.

... says the American where the votes were counted until they fulfilled the expectations of Mr. Bush
Just teasing you, Jan

Kenya has a very young history of democracy. Until the end of the 80s this democratic country had only one party . It was followed by a corrupt government and now? Well, we will see but such changes don't come over night.

Original von Carsten
... says the American where the votes were counted until they fulfilled the expectations of Mr. Bush
Just teasing you, Jan

Kenya has a very young history of democracy. Until the end of the 80s this democratic country had only one party . It was followed by a corrupt government and now? Well, we will see but such changes don't come over night.

Hopefully Kenya will spared from any sort of violence.....

This is too slow! First it was looking like Raila was winning by far, but now the Standard says both parties have declared their candidate winner. Lets hope the real winner wins and that there’s no more violence.

Original von Nyamera
This is too slow! First it was looking like Raila was winning by far, but now the Standard says both parties have declared their candidate winner. Lets hope the real winner wins and that there’s no more violence.

2 declared winner.........that is asking for trouble to come..........

Electoral Commission of Kenya sorts out poll fiasco

By Sunday Standard Team

After a bad day with party leaders, ECK decides to audit votes cast in 210 constituencies and report findings on Sunday.

The Electoral Commission is the focal point, particularly over how it will try to wriggle itself out of the quagmire and poll fiasco witnessed in the last three days.

Last evening it gave itself just a little over 12 hours to tell the nation how it would try and stabilise the situation by addressing the grievances raised by one of the parties to the unfolding dispute on the presidential vote tally.

The searchlight for answers out of the vote wrangle and rising tension turned onto ECK as its final results for the day, announced before the decision for an audit of the total votes cast, cast President Kibaki reducing the gap between him and ODM candidate Mr Raila Odinga to under 100,000. There were 18 constituencies yet to be tallied at 6.30 pm when ECK list showed Raila had moved to 3,880, 053 as Kibaki closed in with 3,842,051. At 2:30 pm Raila, who had led from when counting started, had 3,726,247 and Kibaki 3,416139.

Results from 183 constituencies showed ODM had won 95 seats. The number was expected to rise since there were another 24 constituencies where tallying of results had not been completed by last night. PNU had secured 36 seats while Mr Kalonzo Musyoka’s ODM-Kenya managed 15 seats. Kanu, led by Mr Uhuru Kenyatta who is in partnership with PNU, had won 10 seats in the hotly contested elections ever.

The standoff at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, progressed as skirmishes broke out in Kisumu, Eldoret, Kakamega and other areas perceived to be ODM’s strongholds in the western belt.

The task before ECK is monumental, and Commissioner Jack Tumwa said after 21 ECK members met following the chaotic standoff, they decided to do an audit of the votes cast throughout 210 constituencies.

The standoff between the two groups dramatically and chaotically played itself out before Chairman Samuel Kivuitu and his team. On the one hand was the Orange Democratic Movement team, claiming manipulation of votes in the Central and Eastern bloc. Here stood ODM Pentagon leaders Mr William Ruto, Mrs Charity Ngilu, Mr Joe Nyagah and Mr Najib Balala, as well Chairman Mr Henry Kosgey.

Also in the loop, which cast the picture of an electoral body literally under siege, to the point armed GSU personnel had to be called into the meeting room, was the Party of National Unity team led by Justice minister Ms Martha Karua and national coordinator Mr George Nyamweya.

ODM Director of Elections Justice Richard Kwach told Kivuitu the party was not demanding a recount of all the presidential votes cast but verification in specific areas.

"What we are asking for is not a recount but verification and only for specific areas," said Kwach.

He told Kivuitu: "This process is so important that Kenyans can wait for an hour. Let me put it this way; it is a matter of life and death Mr Chairman."

Kivuitu described himself as a patriot who is "ready to burn with this country.’’

The heat and the frustration of the moment was discernible from Kivuitu’s advice to ODM to seek legal redress. In his oft-times witty style he added: "If you doubt me you know where to go. If you do not accept the result, the country is yours...’’ Failure to trace some of his returning officers, and his admission they had switched off the phones on him, he said, forced him to use the police to try and trace them.

It was the day the resilience of Kenyans carried yet another day as the results of Kamukunji were cancelled as those of Maragwa were rejected because the returns were more than the number of the registered voters in the constituency.

Tense and angry party officials buried Kivuitu under a barrage of inquiries before at least one or two direct attempts were made to stop him from announcing results.

This was after the mistrust between the two fiercely competing parties for the presidency—ODM and PNU — boiled over and degenerated into a standoff of an unprecedented scale.

The polls boss also appeared to cast aspersions on the credibility of the exercise itself, when he insinuated some of his officers could be working for people he did not name. "This is where cooking could be taking place, but when they bring it to us, we shall ask them to return them to the person who asked them to cook,’’ he said.

Kivuitu was drawn into a heated exchange with party agents and the situation got out of control as Ugenya MP-elect Mr James Orengo took Kivuitu head-on, moving to the chairman’s table demanding to be heard.

All order broke loose as Kivuitu attempted to continue reading the tallies but Orengo moved to inches of him shouting "Mr Chairman I must be heard! You cannot treat us like children here, I must be heard!"

Kivuitu responded: "When will you get tired?" to which Orengo retorted: "I will not get tired!"

The chaos unfolded as two of top envoys accredited to Kenya — UK’s Mr Adam Wood and America’s Mr Michael Ranneberger — watched. The US ambassador later said his government was "keenly’’ following the progress and that observers had confidence in Kivuitu.

PNU’s Karua, Nyamweya, Mr Danson Mungatana and ODM-Kenya’s Mr Mutula Kilonzo countered the objections raised by the ODM team.

Trouble had started at 4.15pm as commissioner Riunga Raiji started reading part of the remaining results in the absence of Kivuitu.

Raiji was halted in mid-sentence by ODM chairman Henry Kosgey, who protested that the figure he had just read for Nithi constituency, 95,000 for President Kibaki, was not real.

Kosgey demanded that Raiji halts the reading and calls chairman Kivuitu. Kosgey was joined in the protest by Ruto, Balala, Nyagah, Ngilu and other agents.

Kivuitu scolded the politicians: "Do you want us to read results which are not there? If you are not satisfied with what we read, the courts are not very far."

Kivuitu was put to task by ODM presidential research team member Mr Miguna Miguna. The ECK boss threatened to kick out of the hall. "I don’t care how big you are, you are not an agent," he told Miguna.

Kivuitu persisted and read the results for Nithi but he was halted again by Ruto, who told him the ODM agent had a different set of results from the ground.

As Kivuitu argued with Ruto, who said he could make the agent available, he was interrupted by Karua who said that if one constituency was to be verified, then all the 210 should be subjected to the same process.

Kivuitu gave the chance to Mutula who argued that the reading of the results could not be interrupted at that stage.

"The law is very clear, that the mandate of the electoral commission cannot be halted by protests at this session," said Mutula.

As the dint of noise rose a presidential candidate, Bishop Pius Muiru, turned into prayer. "Lord you know who it will be. Be it Raila or Kibaki, Father we pray for peace and unity in our country," his prayer went.

Another presidential candidate Ms Nazlin Umar protested about irregularities in the Kamukunji election to which Kivuitu said the ECK had cancelled the results and the election would be repeated next year.

Kivuitu was then asked by Balala to tell the agents the latest presidential tally before he went back ‘upstairs’ to continue adding up for the remaining 18 constituencies.

Trouble started soon after ECK commissioners, led by Mr Muturi Kigano, in the absence of Kivuitu, read results at 8am in the morning that still left over 50 seats unannounced.

"We demand that the chairman himself comes here to read the results," said Ruto. Kigano abandoned the reading to await Kivuitu who showed up at 11.57am.

Kivuitu still had part of the results of the previous press briefing of Kigano.

Agents protested as Kivuitu gave the explanation some of the vote tallies from remaining constituencies were as a result of agents who had gone missing. "Some may have gone to bars, others may have taken a nap. We do not know where they are," said Kivuitu.

Kivuitu said that instead of the politicians camping at the KICC, they should instead help the commission in looking for the missing returning officers. "Some of these clerks are reported to have disappeared, some have not been found, others were in the bar yet others at their houses sleeping and they have not released the results," said Kivuitu.

Kosgey questioned if the delay in the release was a plot to ‘manufacture’ votes.

Kivuitu said: "We will inquire from other officers, including the police, what led to the delay. They are no secrets," he added.

Nyagah and Ruto wondered why results from as far afield as Kitui in Eastern Province had reached ECK but those from within the city were yet to be received. They said that the long delay in releasing the outcome of the polls was a matter that should be ironed out without delay.

When they were told by Commissioner Daniel Wambua that the issue would be addressed , they complained they had written officially to the ECK in the course of the day (Friday) and that by the time they were raising the issue verbally, way past midnight, nothing had been done.

Ruto said that he and other party officials had been informed by their agents that lights had been switched off during counting and that results from 11 constituencies had not been received.

He further claimed that their agents had been denied the opportunity to sign forms 16A and 18, "which form the basis of acceptability and integrity of the election results".

Posed Ruto: "Can the commission explain why our agents have been barred from signing these forms? What is the commission doing about lights that have been switched off? Is the commission satisfied with what is going on?"

He told the commission to explain the delays in releasing the poll results, saying this was causing concern.

Wambua said the ECK was satisfied with the way the results were being released. He said part of the delay was caused by candidates and their agents. "We are waiting for the results from our presiding officers but in the meantime, we will look at the matter and respond in the next two hours when we have our next briefing", said the official.

This drew even more ire from Ruto and Nyagah, with the former rising again to retort that two hours was a long time in the middle of a counting process for a general election as a lot could happen.

ECK officials explained that polling stations and tallying centres were equipped with lanterns which were turned on low and it was therefore not clear what happened if it was true the lights were switched off.

At this juncture, a PNU official in charge of its foreign desk, Mr John Kamama, rose to chide Ruto and Nyagah, saying the release of poll results was not the appropriate forum to issue such a protest.

Kamama explained that PNU supporters had been attacked, some even killed, yet they were satisfied that the matter had to be raised at the correct forum. "Does the commission know these things? What has it done?"