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              Kenyan Supreme Court to Rule on Election Complaints

   by Gabe Joselow

   Kenya's Supreme Court is to present its ruling Saturday on the
   credibility of the March 4 presidential election, which was marred by
   technical problems. A court-ordered audit of polling stations has shown
   discrepancies in the vote tallying.

   Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of Kenya's presidential election
   with 50.07 percent of the vote, just enough to avoid a run-off with the
   runner-up, Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

   Odinga's lawyers and a civil society group have filed petitions
   challenging the results.

   On the last day of arguments Friday, lawyers representing the two
   presidential candidates, civil society and the electoral commission,
   discussed a just-released recount of the results from 22 polling
   stations.

   Odinga's team said the audit showed that vote totals were altered
   between the local and national tallying centers.

   Kethi Kilonzo, the lawyer for the civil society group, the Africa
   Center for Open Governance (Africog), said the report also showed the
   head of the electoral commission announced Kenyatta's victory when
   results from 10 of those polling stations were not yet available.

   "This report confirms that the returning officer of the presidential
   elections made a decision without completing the tally of the results
   from the polling stations," said Kilonzo.

   The electoral commission, the IEBC, has defended the results,
   attributing any discrepancies to human error.

   Kenyatta's lawyer, Fred Ngatia, backed up the IEBC's position Friday,
   dismissing speculation of any malicious intent.

   "But the point is, my lords, it is across the country," said Ngatia.
   "There is no mischief that can be attributed or no advantage that can
   be attributed from any clerical error that may have occurred."

   There is no question that the election systems put in place by the IEBC
   were flawed, says George Kegoro, executive director of the Kenyan
   section of the International Commission of Jurists.

   He also says the IEBC has been slow to release election-related
   documents that may put them in a bad light.

   "The IEBC can say on the one had they didn't have a lot of time, but
   they've also shown that in relation to documents that they regard as
   assisting them in the case, they show greater efficiency in making
   those available to parties," said Kegoro.

   If four of Kenya's six Supreme Court justices rule that the results
   were not valid, another presidential election will have to be held.
   Otherwise, the petitions will be rejected and Mr. Kenyatta will be
   confirmed the winner of the election, to be sworn in to office on April
   9.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/kenya-supreme-court-to-rule-on-electi
   on-complaints/1631166.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/kenya-supreme-court-to-rule-on-election-complaints/1631166.html