KENYA: Voters form long lines at polling stations throughout Kenya to vote in a general election

Record ID: 361452

  • Title: KENYA: Voters form long lines at polling stations throughout Kenya to vote in a general election
  • Date: 27th December 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF EU ELECTION MONITOR, ALEXANDER GRAF LAMBSDORFF, SAYING: "The violence has been a real problem, I have spoken out very clearly and publicly about it I have visited victims of violence I have implored the ECK (Electoral Commision of Kenya) the electoral commission and the government to do something about this. This is something that is beneath Ken
  • Embargoed: 11th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA380DIQ5RI69VRPNIXUGADWQMI
  • Story Text: Kenyans vote for their next president and parliamentary leader on Thursday (December 27) in an election preceded by violence, tainted by claims of rigging and likely to be the closest in more than four decades of independence from Britain.
    A strong presence of local and international observers are closely watching the polls.
    Head of EU observer mission Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, speaking at a polling station in Nairobi, said his initial assessment was that things were going well.
    The main presidential challenger Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) held a small lead over President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) in polls leading up to the vote, which started at 6 a.m.

    (0300 GMT).
    Having unseated the east African nation's 24-year ruling party in 2002, President Kibaki, 76, now himself faces the possibility of losing power, despite a sound economic record.
    Challenger Odinga -- a businessman, has successfully garnered support among members of tribes who believe the president's Kikuyu tribe have had it too good.
    In the Lake Victoria town of Kisumu, Raila's hometown and seen as an opposition stronghold, voting started early like in most parts of the country.
    Susan Wandera, an election official, said voters started arriving by four o'clock in the morning.
    In the remote eastern town of Mwingi, the home of another opposition leader who is part of the 'big three' presidential candidates, Kalonzo Musyoka, voting was much slower than other areas.
    However the much shorter queues compared to other parts of the country started forming as early as 6 a.m. (0300GMT) Despite the formal end of campaigning, there was frantic political manoeuvring on both sides on the eve of election, with the opposition accusing the government of planning fraud.
    Mobs in the western opposition heartland of Nyanza province killed at least three policemen and beat up a dozen others accused of being disguised as PNU party agents to gain access to polling stations and stuff ballot boxes.
    The winner needs simply to get more votes than his closest challenger, plus 25 percent in five of the eight provinces.
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