THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Kenya’s main opposition coalition party National Super Alliance (NASA) has called on the electoral commission to declare its candidate Raila Odinga as president.
In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, in the presence of Raila Odinga, NASA campaign chief Musalia Mudavadi said they had received data from unnamed IEBC sources that indicate that their candidate is in the lead.
“The data which confirms the authentic and legitimate results of the presidential elections show the two leading candidates obtained the following votes. Raila Odinga 8,041,726 votes and Uhuru Kenyatta 7,755,428 votes … But on the IEBC website, the results displayed show Uhuru in the lead with 8,056,885 votes and Raila with 6,659,493 votes,” he said.
“Evidently, the accurate and lawful results in the presidential election is the transmission received from the polling stations and contained in the IEBC servers and not the unverified displayed,” he said.
We demand the IEBC chairperson announce the results forthwith and declare Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka as duly elected president and deputy president of the Republic of Kenya.
“We demand the IEBC chairperson announce the results forthwith and declare Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka as duly elected president and deputy president of the Republic of Kenya,” he added.
He demanded that the IEBC immediately remove the results displayed on the website and make the forms 34A and 34B accessible to all political parties to download for verification.
Musalia Mudavadi said a a letter has been sent to the IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati to express their disappointment and for him to look into irregularities immediately.
“The least we expected from the commission was to undertake an investigation of our claims … Given the importance and urgency of the matter, the IEBC should have released information from their investigation,” he said.
When asked by journalists if they had compiled all the results from the polling stations which the IEBC is still waiting for, Mudavadi said what they have “is more likely the final results”.
When asked if they will proceed to court, he said: “when we are told at the appropriate time whether it is within the court of law, then we will present our evidence”.
NASA said Odinga will not speak until after the final declaration of results.
Meanwhile at least two protesters have allegedly been shot dead by after violence broke out following Tuesday’s general election.
Protests have been taking place in Nairobi, despite Odinga calling for calm, and police fired shots to disperse opposition supporters in Kisumu, where hundreds of demonstrators could be heard shouting: “No Raila, no peace.”
Fears are mounting that the country could once again descend into the chaos it saw in 2007, in which 1,100 Kenyans were killed and 600,000 were displaced following a disputed election.
Adira Kallo with agency reports
