‘Yes’ wins with over 6m votes
Poll workers collect "yes" votes cast at a local polling station in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret on August 4, 2010. AFP PHOTO/Roberto SCHMIDT
The ‘Yes’ camp was leading with slightly more than 6 million votes while the ‘No’ side had 2.7 million votes on Thursday night.
Interim Independent Electoral Commission official Winnie Guchu said the final result was expected to be announced later.
Analysis at the time showed that the turnout stood at 72 per cent, with 8.7 million votes cast. A total of 197,624 votes were recorded as rejected.
There was little activity at the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya as the ‘No’ team had already conceded defeat in the referendum poll.
Only a few observers and ‘Yes’ supporters were in the room as most had left to listen to an address by President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
Among those present as the tallying came to a close were Narc-Kenya chairperson Martha Karua and ‘Yes’ secretariat co-coordinator Prof Peter Kagwanja.
Declared victory
The electoral commission had earlier urged both the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ teams and the media to desisit from declaring winners using provisional results.
The commission’s warning came after the ‘Yes’ group declared victory at a news conference earlier in the day.
Speaking at the Bomas of Kenya auditorium, IIEC chairman Isaak Hassan reminded Kenyans that the law mandates only the commission to make such an announcement.
“This commission is the only one mandated by law to declare the results not anyone else, not even the media,” said Mr Hassan.
The law gives IIEC 48 hours after close of voting to declare official results, he said. “We are still within that time. So be patient,” he told the two camps and the media.
The IIEC, he said, had noted with concern that the ‘Yes’ team relied on provisional results the commission had been releasing since Wednesday to declare victory.
The media was also accused of using provisional results to mislead the public on the outcome of the referendum.
The Commission expects to release a final official tally of all or most of the 210 constituencies before end of the day Friday, Mr Hassan said.
The commission would airlift returning officers from far-flung areas while those who could not arrive in Nairobi six hours after tallying at the constituency levels had been booked on scheduled commercial flights.
“The commission is now receiving Forms 7 from returning officers to confirm the results we have been receiving electronically. We hope to receive all the official final results by today,” said Mr Hassan.
Additional reporting by Walter Menya
