The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya has started counting results from Tuesday’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
According to a report by Reuters, preliminary results are showing a close contest between the two leading presidential candidates, Deputy President William Ruto and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.
The two candidates are battling it out to succeed the nation’s outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyata who is ending his presidential term.
Citizens are currently on edge amidst fears of the final declaration of the winner resulting in violence in the country.
Two out of the last three elections held in Kenya resulted in violence and bloodshed amidst accusations of rigging.
In the country’s election in 2007, more than 1,200 people were killed over a disputed result while one-hundred Kenyans were killed when the 2017 polls ended in a dispute.
Although the polls on Tuesday were largely peaceful, there were some isolated incidents including a legislator who shot dead a rival’s aide outside a polling station.
Some reported results including tabulations by privately-owned Citizen Television showed Ruto leading with just over 50 percent of the vote while Odinga followed closely with 48.5 percent.
Another private media house, Nation Group placed Ruto in the lead by some 51 percent while Odinga had 48 percent of the reported results.
In a twist of events, President Kenyata who had fallen out with his deputy Ruto ahead of the election endorsed Raila Odinga.
Meanwhile, some observers have cautioned against the early calling of the election noting the detection of errors in some of the reported results.
The IEBC is expected to declare the results in days as the constitution gives it up to a week.
Voter turnout in the election has been reported to be low with the commission reporting about 60% turnout for the nation’s 22.1 million electoral population. This is against the 80% turnout recorded in the last election in 2017.
Meanwhile, polls are being held in the northern town of Eldas, where clashes prevented elections on Tuesday.
ghanaweb.com