{"id":772,"date":"2017-09-21T13:17:38","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T13:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=772"},"modified":"2017-09-21T13:17:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T13:17:38","slug":"kenyan-election-annulled-after-result-called-before-votes-counted-says-court-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2017\/09\/21\/kenyan-election-annulled-after-result-called-before-votes-counted-says-court-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan election annulled after result called before votes counted, says court – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardian<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supreme court blames failings by electoral commission for its decision to annul results of August vote.<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s supreme court has said it\u00a0annulled presidential elections<\/a>\u00a0held in August because the polls were \u201cneither transparent nor verifiable\u201d and blamed the country\u2019s electoral commission for the shortcomings.<\/p>\n

Uhuru Kenyatta, the incumbent president of the east African state, won a second term by a margin of 9%, defeating his long-term rival, Raila Odinga, in the election last month. The country now faces new elections in October, and possible lengthy political instability.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s majority decision to annul the poll \u2013 the result of which was announced three weeks ago \u2013 surprised many observers and embarrassed local, African and western observers who said they had found no major problems with the election.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the court offered a detailed explanation of why it annulled the 8 August election \u2013 the first decision of its kind in\u00a0Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reading out portions of the judgment, Philomena Mwilu, the deputy chief justice, said the court had upheld the opposition claim that the election result was declared before all results from Kenya\u2019s more than 40,000 polling stations had been received.<\/p>\n

The poll had therefore not been \u201cconducted in accordance with the constitution\u201d, leaving \u201cno choice but to nullify it\u201d.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s decision has sharpened the political divide in\u00a0Kenya<\/a>, one of Africa\u2019s biggest economies, and risks a constitutional crisis. Odinga, who lost by 1.4m votes, has said he will not take part in the new elections scheduled for 17 October unless some staff at the electoral commission are fired, among other demands.<\/p>\n

Electoral officials may struggle to meet the deadline as the French company responsible for the technological systems used for elections\u00a0has said it cannot be ready in time<\/a>. The constitution specifies that a rerun must occur before November.<\/p>\n

The court also raised deep concerns about the failure of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to open its computer servers to the court, and irregularities in the transmission of results, though the judges made clear they had not seen evidence that there was any systematic or deliberate rigging.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the annulled poll, opposition officials repeatedly described the election results as a fraud and claimed that Odinga, who leads the National Super Alliance (NASA), was the \u201clegitimate\u201d winner.<\/p>\n

Dozens died in scattered protests in opposition strongholds but the widespread violence predicted by some did not occur.<\/p>\n

Odinga\u2019s claims of rigging after defeat in 2007 elections prompted rioting and retaliation by security forces, which tipped the country into its worst crisis for decades. About 1,200 people were killed in the campaign of ethnic violence that followed.<\/p>\n

The election was Odinga\u2019s fourth failed shot at the presidency. In 2013 he said the election was rigged and took his case to the supreme court, but lost.<\/p>\n

Kenyatta has accepted the court\u2019s decision and aides say he is confident of winning again.<\/p>\n

The political atmosphere is acrimonious, however. On Tuesday evening, the deputy president, William Ruto, accused the court of favouring the opposition while ruling party officials said Odinga would face impeachment proceedings if he was victorious in the rerun.<\/p>\n

David Maraga, the chief justice, said threats against judicial staff had risen since the supreme court ruling. He cited the demonstrations outside the court and threatening messages sent on social media to individual judges and their staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenior political leaders have also threatened the judiciary, promising to cut it down to size and teach us a lesson,\u201d Maraga said, adding that judges would not be intimidated by anyone and were ready to pay the \u201cultimate price\u201d to protect the constitution and rule of law.<\/p>\n

George Kinoti, the national police spokesman, said they were waiting for details of the chief justice\u2019s criticism before responding.<\/p>\n

Reported instances of hate speech\u00a0have risen sharply<\/a>\u00a0since the surprise court ruling on 1 September. The heads of western diplomatic missions in Kenya, including those of the EU, US and Britain, urged Kenyan leaders to avoid comments that could incite hatred and violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time to focus on preparing for the new poll, which, in line with the court\u2019s order and the constitution, must be run by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and be held by the end of October,\u201d they said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/sep\/20\/kenyan-election-rerun-not-transparent-supreme-court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian Supreme court blames failings by electoral commission for its decision to annul results of August vote. Kenya\u2019s supreme court has said it\u00a0annulled presidential elections\u00a0held in August because the polls were \u201cneither transparent nor verifiable\u201d and blamed the country\u2019s electoral commission for the shortcomings. Uhuru Kenyatta, the incumbent president of the east African state, won a second term by… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}