By NATION correspondentPosted Thursday, December 30 2010 at 21:07
Kamukunji candidates and their supporters have been blamed for the chaos at the counting hall during the 2007 elections.
A deputy returning officer at one of the polling stations, Mr Alex Khalakuli, said that the chaos erupted after Mr Simon Mbugua was pronounced winner of the Kamukunji seat.
Mr Khalakuli said Mr Mbugua won the elections, adding that he relied on form 17 A, a document that was later disregarded by Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal during a previous hearing of the petition.
Lady Justice Rawal disqualified herself from the case in June this year after receiving threatening messages from unknown people.
Another judge, Mr Justice Fred Ochieng, also disqualified himself in October after remarks were made against him that he had been influenced.
Despite the dispute over the parliamentary results, Mr Khalakuli said, none of the candidates approached him with a written complaint.
Mr Khalakuli was giving evidence during the hearing of the election petition before Lady Justice Mary Angawa.
Chaos erupted at Shauri Moyo tallying centre when Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) officials had completed tallying results from 135 out of the total 157 polling stations.
The constituency had 25 parliamentary candidates. The Kamukunji parliamentary results were nullified by the ECK following the dispute.
But this was declared an abuse of power in a ruling delivered in July 2008.
After the results were nullified, Mr Mbugua filed a judicial review application, stating that he was on the verge of winning when tallying was called off.
ODM candidate Ibrahim Ahmed filed the petition in August 2008 soon after Mr Mbugua (PNU) was declared winner with 22,614 votes. Mr Ahmed (ODM) garnered 16,604 votes.
The case was adjourned to January 6, after the lawyer representing the ECK, Mr Steven Adere, asked for more time to interview and establish the suitability of their witnesses.
“We need time to look for the ECK witnesses and the evidence as they are essential to the case,” he told Justice Angawa.
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