Kenya set for poll results
Kenyan voters head to polls to cast ballots in nation's tightest-ever election.
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Friday, 28, Dec 2007 08:33
Kenyan voters are awaiting the results of presidential, parliamentary and local elections viewed as the nation's tightest-ever.
Prime minister Mwai Kibaki is seeking a second term while his closest rival, former political prisoner Raila Odinga, looks to win office after a fraught campaign and accusations of poll rigging.
Opinion polls issued last week revealed the closeness of the contest, with Mr Odinga adjudged to have the support of between 43 and 45 per cent of the electorate, compared to Mr Kibaki's 36.7 to 43 per cent.
A Gallup poll put 76-year-old Mr Kibaki ahead, with 44 per cent to Mr Odinga's 43.
Final results from the polls are expected on Saturday, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) confirmed, after an estimated turnout of more than 70 per cent of the electorate overwhelmed authorities.
While the presidential race is as yet too close to call, it is believed a number of government ministers have lost their parliamentary seats.
Local TV stations claimed the current ministers of health, roads and information were likely to be unseated, as well as vice president Moody Awori.
However the huge turnout at yesterday's polling stations has been marred by accusations of electoral fraud.
Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement party has accused Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) of using security forces to rig the election and Mr Odinga yesterday stormed out of a polling station in his Nairobi constituency, saying he had not been able to vote because his name was not on the register.
"As you can see this is not by accident but by design," he was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
Voting had been delayed by six hours in his parliamentary constituency of Kibera, with voters reporting problems with the roll for names beginning with the letters R and O.
"I'm sure we are going to win, not by a narrow margin but by a landslide," he said after filing a complaint with the ECK and eventually casting his ballot in Kibera.
Mr Kibaki voted without problems in the central town of Nyeri, saying: "I am sure we will win. Thank you Kenyans for giving me an opportunity and I will not tire serving you."
The ECK extended voting in areas where the start was delayed.