Now Electoral and Boundaries Commission IEBC releases final presidential vote results

IEBC officials led by Chairman Isaack Hassan (centre) after presenting final election results to Parliamentary Justice and Legal affairs committee. (Photo:Boniface Okendo/Standard)

By ALEX NDEGWA and EMMANUEL WERE

NAIROBI; KENYA: A computation of figures from the March 4 General Election shows discrepancies in both total and valid votes cast between the presidential and other races.

Some 80,204 more voters cast their ballots in the presidential vote than the election of Senators, according to figures released by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Thursday.

The total votes cast in the presidential election were 12,330,028 compared to 12,249,824 in the Senatorial poll.

Also 41,091 more voters cast ballots for presidential candidates than for those contesting for Governor in the 47 counties.

The total votes cast in the election of governors were 12,288,937.

The delay by IEBC to release the detailed results had sparked uproar and given rise to speculation as to the final tallies. The commission is required by law to release the figures that are the basis for sharing out of Political Parties fund.

On Thursday, the IEBC explained the discrepancies were as a result of a combination of factors.

These included the number of rejected votes varying for various elections and some voters opting to vote for certain positions.

The other explanation given was that some men never voted for Women’s Representatives and that the diaspora only voted in the presidential election.

With some 14 million registered voters, the electoral commission said the election had 86 per cent voter turnout.

According to the report, more voters participated in the electing MPs than deciding who among eight candidates would succeed President Kibaki as the country’s fourth President.

Some 343,554 more voters cast ballots in the parliamentary election than that total number of voters who participated in the presidential vote.

The high interest in parliamentary elections perhaps was due to the dissatisfaction with the performance of the previous Parliament.

The discrepancies, although explained by various factors, are significant not only because of the disputed outcome of the election but the fact that President Uhuru Kenyatta secured the constitutional threshold with a wafer-thin majority.

IEBC declared Jubilee’s Kenyatta had been elected President after securing 50.7 percent of the vote with his closest challenger CORD’s Raila Odinga garnering 43 percent.

Crossed threshold

Kenyatta crossed the constitutional threshold of 50 percent plus one with just over 4,000 votes.

Kenyatta polled 6,173,433 against Raila’s 5,340,546.

Raila contested the results, citing among others that votes cast exceeded the number of registered voters, but the Supreme Court upheld Kenyatta’s victory.

The IEBC said the number of valid votes casts in the presidential election were 12,221,053.

This means the number of valid votes cast in the election for governors were 58,320 fewer compared to the presidential vote.

The IEBC figures show 12,162,733 valid votes were cast in the contest for governors. This could however be partially attributed to the fact that more ballots were reported spoilt in the governors’ election (126,204) than were rejected in the presidential vote (108,975).

Similarly, more electors — 39,113, according to the report — voted to decide the contest for governors than Senators. Overall, the differences in the tallies between the various positions appear distributed across CORD and Jubilee’s strongholds.

For instance, the 41,091 more votes cast in the presidential election than the election of governors are spread in counties where the rival coalitions were perceived popular.

Most people, 5,049, cast valid votes in the presidential election than that of governors in Siaya County. The number of valid votes cast in the presidential election in Siaya was 286,712 while those for the governor’s poll were 281,663. The number of rejected votes for the governor’s poll in Siaya was 2,363.

Valid votes

The second highest difference in the number of valid votes cast in the presidential and governor’s election was in Meru County with 4,874.

In Meru, 425,394 valid votes were cast in the presidential election compared to 420,520 for the governor’s election. Some 5,287 votes were rejected in the governor’s election.

Kisumu, Mandera, Machakos, Trans Nzoia, Nyeri, Nandi, Kakamega and Makueni were other counties with higher differences between the total valid votes cast for the presidency and governor’s election.

Yesterday, there was more drama at a parliamentary committee hearing where IEBC officials submitted the report.

IEBC electoral chiefs refused to take the oath while appearing before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee saying they were there to submit information and not to adduce evidence.

“The distribution of Political Parties Fund is the preserve of Registrar of Political Parties. We shall avail the same results to her for further computation and for her to use as desirable,” read the report signed by CEO James Oswago.

Earlier all the eight commissioners led by chairman Issack Hassan appeared before the committee to present the computed results of the general elections.