Anxious wait as Raila, Ruto stuck below 50% threshold amid slow tallies

Kenya is sitting on the edge as a leading provisional tally narrowed difference between frontrunners in Tuesday’s presidential election to a 0.36 percentage point gap translating to about 48,000 votes.

Citizen Television’s provisional tally which eclipsed Nation Media Group’s on Thursday after reporting results from over 43,000 polling stations compared to Nation’s 37,908 remained unchanged over an hour.

Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga led the tally with 6,452,516 votes (49.48 per cent) against United Democratic Alliance’s William Ruto who had garnered 6,404,755 (49.12 per cent).

A candidate is required to garner 50 per cent plus one vote nationally in addition to 25 per cent of the vote in at least halve the counties (24) be certified as President-Elect.

NMG’s tally which was leading on Wednesday crossed the 6-million-mark for both the two candidates after lagging behind for hours with the gap between Odinga and Ruto narrowing down to a percentage point.

Out of the 38,190 polling stations tallied by NMG, Odinga had accumulated 6,248,139 (50.2 per cent) against Ruto’s 6,114,212 (49.12 per cent) with 12.4 million votes tallied.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had at the time already shared statutory Form 34As from 99.9 per cent (46,174) of the 46,229 polling stations spread across the country.

Even so, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati moved to reassure the nation attributing differing media tallies to varying sequencing patterns, resource capacity in tabulating result forms.

IEBC reverted to using the KIEMS-based register as the primary identification mechanism following a Court of Appeal ruling on Monday compelling the agency to use the electronic register permitting the use of the printed (manual) roll only in cases of technology failure.

On Thursday, Chebulati urged Kenyans to remain patent following anxiety caused by different results tallied by the media.

IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati told news reporters at the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi that the electoral agency would give a final turnout figure once the number of voters identified manually is verified.