THE Election Observation Group which comprises of the National Council of Churches of Kenya and 12 other players have declared the March 4 elections as free and fair.
The group said despite widespread malfunctioning of electronic verification kits witnessed during the voting day, the Parallel Vote Tabulation indicated that the polls used by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to declare Uhuru President are credible.
Releasing the report titled "The Historic Vote" at the Stanley Hotel in Nairobi yesterday, Elog chair Kennedy Masime said IEBC provided 98 per cent of the materials necessary for elections.
He said they deployed more than 7,580 observers, with 97.5 per cent giving findings that concurred with the IEBC results. "From the observers, 976 were deployed as PVT. They verified that the results announced by IEBC were within the range projection for each of the presidential candidates," Masime said.
He added that 99.5 per cent of observers were allowed by IEBC to oversee the polls. "Voting was reported as free by 99.6 per cent of the general observers who indicated that the required procedures were complied with," Masime said.
On May 29, the European Union chief observer Alojz Peterle declared the polls as free and fair while releasing its report but Cord leader, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga who came second has since said the elections were rigged in favour of President Uhuru.
Masime said PVT projection for final turnout was 85.6 per cent with a margin error of +/- 1.7 per cent and was consistent with IEBCs results of 85.9 per cent.
"Results released by IEBC on March 9, were within the range of the PVT projections, it is reasonable to conclude that the outcome of the elections can be trusted as credible," the report said in its conclusion.
The report said 95.6 per cent of the ballot boxes were empty by the time voting started and that 98.9 per cent of the boxes were intact before counting began.
It further said ODM had the highest number of agents at 83.4 per cent followed by TNA at 79.5 per cent while other parties had 75.5 per cent. The report said 99.6 per cent of the ballot papers were stamped before issuing out and that 99.5 per cent were marked with indelible ink after voting.
The The Historic Vote report said although the polls were much better than the 2007 exercise considering the tight timelines IEBC had, a number of issues need to be addressed like the acquisition of electronic materials before a general election.
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