Kenya’s electoral commission is appealing a court ruling that poll results announced at the constituency level are final. The electoral body says that opens the way to manipulation. The bad blood between the Kenya’s political opposition and its electoral commission has been taken to the corridors of justice three months before the August poll. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is appealing a high court ruling that bans the commission chairman from making the official announcement of presidential vote totals from each constituency. The court ruled that vote totals announced at polling stations and the constituency level are final.
The Kenya country director of the Johannesburg based non-profit Electoral Law and Governance Institute in Africa, Felix Odhiambo, says previous electoral flaws did not favor the commission.
“What IEBC is seeking to do, is a disquisition that has been misused in this country time and again by allowing the chairperson of the commission to be the final returning officer with respect to the election of the president,” he said. “If you look at 2007 elections and 2013 elections, the conduct of the chairperson of the IEBC and what the IEBC did at the national tallying center was subject to many litigations.”
It took days to announce the presidential vote results in 2007 and 2013, with charges of altering figures at the national level.
Full Article: Kenya Electoral Commission Challenges Ruling on Vote Counts.