NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug, 10 – A day after millions of Kenyans cast their ballot in arguably the most contested election since independence, Kenyans are still waiting with bated breath for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to announce the victor of the presidential election.
Azimio La Umoja – One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate William Ruto are the front runners in what seems to be a neck-to-neck contest thus far.
Roots Party’s Professor George Wajackoya and Agano Party’s David Mwaure are the other candidates though they are still trailing the two front runners by a huge margin.
The subject of debate however in the last few hours among Kenyans on social media has been the tally of the presidential election results with different media houses appearing to be making different projections.
IEBC has this time round allowed media houses among other organizations to do their own tallies with the majority sourcing their data from the poll body’s election portal.
It is Kenyan media houses however that have made headlines regarding the subjects with the tallies varying across each station.
Why are the tallies for the presidential election results different across the stations?
The obvious answer is the processing capability and speed of media houses and their staff to collate the data from IEBC’s portal and feed them to their constantly updating systems.
The speed of this exercise is one of the reasons Kenyans have noticed the differences.
The poll body is also uploading the polling station results in an unpredictable manner thus media houses take time to tally the votes and update the presidential election results.
The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) earlier today in a statement said that they were in consultations with media owners to find an urgent solution to ensure Kenyans receive synchronized results.
“The Media Council of Kenya confirms that the results being projected are from the IEBC though the sequencing by different media houses is from different voting areas,” read part of the statement from MCK.
IEBC On When Final Announcements For Presidential Election Results Will Be Made
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) says there will be no new numbers other than those indicated on Form 34A loaded on their portal.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati said any form with a discrepancy will be amended in the presence of various presidential candidate agents.
“There will be no new numbers,” IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati said during a press briefing at Bomas of Kenya. “These are final results. The results at the public portal are the same results the commission will use to complete this process.”
He hailed Kenyans, “for continued patience” as the tallying of votes continue.
More than 12 million voters out of a possible 22.1 million participated in the August 9 general elections.
There were 6 elective positions, but it is that of the President that has attracted much scrutiny and interest.
IEBC is expected to wait for physical copies of Form 34-A, the results form from the polling stations, to be delivered to the National Tallying Centre for verification and computation before any results are announced.
Want to send us a story? Contact Shahidi News Tel: +254115512797 (Mobile & WhatsApp)
