A Kenyan journalist Philip Nyakundi Gichana has reported that the Kenya general election and the processes have generally been calm.
The journalist said the election unlike, the previous one, the speed was high, and it was worth noting that the electoral body ensured that per polling station had 700 voters.
Speaking to Kwabena Agyapong on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, he said this process helped because there were no long queues at the centres.
”But generally, this time around, we had high voter apathy, we didn’t see many people go to the polls and again that could be the reason why the queues must have been shorter.”
The other element is that we had a few cancellations of voting to happen in two counties and a few five constituencies, and I think this was occasioned by a mixed up of ballot boxes that bore different names of candidates in that area. With that, we are waiting for direction from Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on when they will conduct the specific areas where they had to suspend the elections”.
The journalist disclosed that the two major contenders are Deputy President William Ruto and Raila Odinga.
The rests of the candidates he posited are nowhere near victory.
According to him, it is very hard to tell who is leading or would emerge as the winner of the elections.
He said the Deputy President is widely supported. However, one cannot underrate the support for Raila Odinga.
About 22.1 million people are registered to cast their ballots in elections for 1,882 elective posts, including the president, governors, senators, women representatives, parliament and ward representatives.
The presidential candidates need to secure more than half of the valid votes cast and at least a quarter of the ballots cast in half of Kenya’s 47 counties to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta.
If no candidate meets that threshold, a fresh election shall be held within 30 days in which the winner will be up against the runner-up.
Philip Nyakundi Gichana said the Kenyans learnt lessons since 2017, and the 2022 elections have been generally calm.
He told the host that the electoral body engaged with the candidates especially the two major candidates, to address some challenges they had over the processes.
He added the electoral body assured Kenyans that it was prepared to organize credible, transparent, peaceful elections ”but what I can say is that these things take a minute to change”.
He said it would be a recipe for chaos should any candidate raise concerns over the tallied results.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana