- Title: Kenya poll monitors back official election result
- Date: 12th August 2017
- Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (AUGUST 12, 2017) (REUTERS) ELECTIONS OBSERVATION GROUP (ELOG) NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS VARIOUS OF OBSERVER IN JACKET READING (English): "ELOG OBSERVER" JOURNALIST FILMING WITH SMART PHONE BANNER READING (English): "ELECTIONS OBSERVATION GROUP. CREDIBLE, PEACEFUL, FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS" ELOG OFFICIALS SEATED AT CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAWYER AND ELECTIONS OBSERVATION GROUP (ELOG) CO-CONVENER, JOSEPHINE MONGARE, SAYING: "ELOG wishes to note and remind that the role, constitutional role of announcing and declaring of official and final results still belongs to the IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) which I believe they did yesterday. Our estimates however are consistent with the IEBC official results for the 2017 presidential election results." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIRWOMAN OF ELECTIONS OBSERVATION GROUP (ELOG'S) STEERING COMMITTEE, REGINA OPONDO, SAYING: "We didn't find anything that was deliberately manipulated. Our results come directly from the polling stations. We have the observers sat there so they send us an SMS of what is announced as it is announced, they send us SMS's at different intervals, so from opening all the way up to counting of what is happening. We have set times for them to send messages." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAWYER AND ELECTIONS OBSERVATION GROUP (ELOG) CO-CONVENER, JOSEPHINE MONGARE, SAYING: "I don't think the court cannot be not an option for them. The opposition use the courts very successfully. Some of the decisions, some of the actions of the IEBC were directed by outcomes of cases filed by the opposition. So, I don't think that that is a true statement. The courts are an option for all Kenyans. The courts are an option for the opposition because they used those processes they were happy and satisfied with the results that they got and where they were not satisfied they went to the next level which the appellate level. In some cases, saw the original decisions overturned and ruled still in their favour and in some cases we saw also the other side getting decisions that were overturned and ruled in their favour so I think the courts is the option for all of us as Kenyans." SCREEN SHOWING TABULATED RESULTS BY ELOG
- Embargoed: 26th August 2017 12:18
- Keywords: Kenyan elections Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) ELOG Elections Observation Group
- Location: NAIROBI, KENYA
- City: NAIROBI, KENYA
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0016TUN58N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Kenya's main domestic poll monitoring organisation, ELOG, said on Saturday (August 12) it had found no evidence to suggest this week's election was manipulated or inaccurate, as the opposition have attested.
ELOG's parallel vote tally projected a victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta with 54 percent of ballots cast, compared to an official count of 54.3 percent. This was well within ELOG's 1.9 percent margin of error, the group said.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga's NASA coalition rejected the results even before they were announced, saying that the election commission's systems had been hacked, that the conduct of the count was irregular and that foreign observers who gave the poll a clean bill of health were biased.
ELOG, which had 8,300 observers on the ground, said its parallel vote tally conformed with the official outcome. Co-convener for ELOG and lawyer, Josephine Mongare told Reuters in an interview that disputes over the results could only be dealt with in court. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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