Presidential election in Kenya: caution of Elog observers who describe the announced results as "coherent"
General elections in Kenya, August 9, 2002: in a primary school in Kibera.
REUTERS - THOMAS MUKOYA
Text by: RFI Follow
4 mins
In Kenya, Raila Odinga rejected yesterday, Tuesday, his defeat in the presidential election and promises to use "all legal means at his disposal" to contest it.
In this context, Elog, the Kenyan civil society observer group spoke yesterday about the progress of the process.
He qualifies the announced results as “consistent” with his estimates.
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with our correspondent in Nairobi
,
Florence Morice
ELOG,
Electoral Observation Group
, had deployed observers in 990 polling stations considered representative, out of the 46,000 in the country: on this basis, its teams then carried out a projection of the results at the national level, as explained by Ann Ireri, chair of the observation group.
"
Thanks to this count, Elog is able to confirm that also the participation rate that the official results announced by the commission are consistent with our estimates
".
►
To read also:
in Kenya, civil society is preparing to monitor the regularity of the vote
ELOG'S STATEMENT ON THE OFFICIAL 2022 PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS
Download Link: https://t.co/1cuBDXcJIv#GE2022 #kenyaelections2022 pic.twitter.com/lDqYeOjGdp
— ELOG Kenya (@elogkenya) August 16, 2022
The margin of error announced by Elog - around 2% - still calls for caution because the gap is narrow between the two main candidates (233,211 votes).
►
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: in Kenya, William Ruto declared winner with 50.49% by the president of the Electoral Commission
Elog observers note that the results transmission system worked much better than expected.
They are delighted that the Electoral Commission has made 99% of the minutes available online, but the dissension within the Electoral Commission which manifested itself on Monday worries them.
"
We are extremely concerned about the chaos that happened at the National Vote Counting Centre
, continues Ann Ireri,
as well as about the split within the Electoral Commission, which has led some commissioners to withdraw from the counting process and to issue their own statement before the results are even announced.
"
Elog does not pronounce on the question of whether or not the President of the Electoral Commission was justified in announcing the results rejected by 4 out of 7 commissioners but leaves it to the Supreme Court to decide whether it is seized of an appeal on this point.
Kenya, August 16, 2022: The four dissenting members of the Electoral Commission, who dissented from its chairman over the results giving William Ruto the winner by a very narrow margin.
In the center, the vice-president of the Electoral Commission Juliana Cherera.
REUTERS - MONICAH MWANGI
Raila Odinga described as "parody",
"illegal and unconstitutional", the announcement of the election of William Ruto by the president of the Electoral Commission, when 4 of the 7 members of the commission had just dissented.
But he does not say clearly whether he will go to the Supreme Court.
Uhuru Kenyatta, silent since the announcement of the results
He called on his activists to keep calm and seems to favor justice on the street to contest his 5th consecutive defeat in a presidential election.
The words and watchwords of "Baba" as his supporters affectionately call him are listened to in his strongholds where calm reigned on Tuesday.
Raila Odinga
's refusal to
recognize the election of William Ruto still keeps Kenya in uncertainty.
In 2017, he succeeded in having the presidential election canceled but that did not prevent demonstrations from being organized and then violently repressed.
Without forgetting that holding another new election this time would be expensive for Kenya, which is already threatened by the risk of over-indebtedness.
►
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In Kenya, the cost of living makes you cringe
Anyway, the events of the last few days show it, at 77 years old Raila Odinga is not decided to abdicate in what many see as his last fight.
"Expect this to last," British political scientist Nic Cheeseman warned on Twitter.
Especially since beyond the person of Railla Odinga, important economic interests are at stake, for him and also for his ally in this presidential election, the outgoing head of state, Uhuru Kenyatta, silent since the announcement of results.
► On Tuesday, the police announced that they had found the lifeless body of an officer of the Electoral Commission who was supervising the poll in the constituency of Embakasy East.
He had been missing since last Thursday.
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