Thursday, August 5, 2010

LIVE RESULTS

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Green Revolution

By Standard Team

Kenyans wake up to a ‘Green Revolution’ as the latest provisional results show a majority of voters rewriting the country’s history, with an emphatic endorsement of the Proposed Constitution.
If the provisional results match the final tally to be announced by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, President Kibaki must sign the historic document into law within 14 days after the announcement by the electoral body, changing Kenya’s political and social landscape forever. Alternatively, the document automatically replaces the current Constitution at the end of that period, if the Head of State misses the set deadline. Barring a surprise shift in the trend that held on for most of Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, at the Bomas National Tallying Centre, the ’No’ side, which voted against the proposed laws, appeared headed for defeat.

The margin of the loss looked set to be higher than in the 2005 referendum, which saw the winning side garner 58 per cent of votes tallied when, in a reversal of fortunes, the then Proposed Constitution was rejected.

By 2.30am Thursday morning, the ‘Yes’ side had garnered 4,130,364 votes and the ‘No’ team 2,050,422, from the over 14,000 polling stations whose results had been received. This meant of the 6.18 million votes tallied, ‘Yes’ had 66.8 per cent and ‘No’ 33.2 per cent by the time of going to Press.

It is estimated that eight million people voted in the referendum.

As midnight approached yesterday, Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) Chairman Mr Ahmed Issack moved fast to explain an earlier two-hour delay in updating provisional results, saying it was due to the ‘fast and furious’ flow of data from the field.

"We shall continue releasing results as we get them, that is why we have given the media a link to our server…we have committed ourselves to act with integrity and dignity, we are not here to ruin whatever goodwill we have gained by making a mistake. There should be no anxiety, worry or suspicion whatsoever," declared Isaack at 11pm.

Provisional results,

He explained IIEC had taken a decision to give the media access to its raw data as fed into the server by Presiding Officers across the country.

It followed complaints from the ‘No’ team present after a spike in the ‘Yes’ side’s share of the vote

"The data has come fast, at one point we had a queue of 8000-9000 polling stations and we have decided to first tally them before releasing the provisional results,’’ said Isaack. He said the system was secure, could not be manipulated and was inherited from the defunct Electoral Commission and improved upon by the new team.

The biggest jolt to the tallying process was a standoff between IIEC and the ‘No’ Referendum Committee, who felt there was something suspicious about how the results were flooding in almost at the same time.

IIEC, however, resolved to furnish the Committee with raw data as received from the field, to ward off claims by the ‘No’ side that they could have been ‘doctored’.

As ‘Yes’ fortunes began to look up, two people in Kenya — President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga — must have gone to bed either with a silent thanks-giving prayer, or a joyous spirit.

After the ugly spectre of 2008 post-election violence triggered by a dispute over who won the presidential vote, and following the African Union mediated power-sharing deal, history thrust in their hands the burden of handing Kenyans a new constitution.

Voters turned out in large numbers to determine whether the country gets a new Constitution, as they joined long queues as early as 4.30am in the morning — shattering predictions by cynics of voter apathy and high levels of undecided persons.

As at 10pm ‘Yes’ was leading in seven out of eight provinces and ‘No’ in one — Rift Valley. The national voter turn-out as at 3pm was over 50 per cent as announced by Isaack.

When the tally stood at 2,937,465, ‘Yes’ had 1,876,469 and ‘No’ 1,060,996. Until going to press the ‘Greens’ had an unrelenting 33 per cent lead over the ‘Reds’.

Smoothly-executed

By 10pm, results per province were: Central; ‘Yes’ 642, 525 and ‘No’ 108752: Nairobi ‘Yes’ 140, 908 and ‘No’ 65,457: Nyanza ‘Yes’ 716, 606 and ‘No’ 59,221: Rift Valley ‘Yes’ 363,179 and ‘No’ 820,296: Eastern ‘Yes’ 425,942 and ‘No’: 325,296: Western ‘Yes’ 454,498 and ‘No’ 84,999: North Eastern ‘Yes’ 58,959 and ‘No’ 2,788: and Coast ‘Yes’ 175,045 and ‘No’ 44,287

At 8.17pm, results released by IIEC in the smoothly-executed process, which showcased a national electronic tallying system for the first time in Kenya, put ‘Yes’ in the lead with 63.8 per cent, against ‘No’s’ 36.2 per cent.

By 6.12pm the results were quickly flowing through the electronic IIEC system at the Bomas of Kenya tallying centre with ‘No’ taking an early lead.

Earlier, results announced at 6.30pm put ‘No’ in the lead, but the figures kept changing as the results trickled over on the electronic screen.

At 7:40pm, the screen went blank, and soon after, IIEC Commissioner Davis Chirchir announced the results were to be relayed to media houses directly.

"We are not able to cope with the flow of information at the moment, but we will relay the results directly to the media as they come in, so that they can do their own analysis," said Chirchir.

Mosop MP David Koech who was the Chief Agent of the ‘No’ side watched events closely as they unfolded at Bomas

Isaack told a media briefing that voting had gone on smoothly in all parts of the country and no bad incidents were reported. "IIEC is happy with the high voter turn out and generally, Kenyans have shown a lot of interest and enthusiasm."

President Kibaki strolled into Munaini Primary School polling station in his Othaya Constituency accompanied by his son Jimmy and voted at 11am.

Former President Moi voted at Moi Kabarak Primary School at 7:45am. Prime Minister Raila Odinga voted at 10:25am with his wife Ida Odinga at Old Kibera Primary School in Nairobi’s Langata Constituency. "I have no doubt in my mind that the ‘Yes’ side is going to win," he said. The PM addressed the press at Bomas of Kenya during familiarisation tour of the nerve centre of the referendum process.




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