Nairobi, August 16 (EFE)- Kenya’s former prime minister and opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday dismissed the results of the general election as “illegal”, a day after the Independent Electoral Commission (IEBC, its English acronym) announced its decision. defeat in the presidential race.
In a message to the nation in Nairobi, Odinga said, “The figures released by (Wafula) Chebukati (IEBC president) should be overturned by the courts. In our opinion, there is no legitimate and valid declared winner and no elected president.”
Yesterday, Chebukati declared the victory of vice-president William Ruto with 50.49% of the votes in the last day 9 elections, while Odinga got 48.85% of the votes.
The IEBC president declared Ruto, 55, “president-elect”.
Minutes before the announcement, four IEBC commissioners (composed of seven commissioners and the president), including vice-president Juliana Cherera, questioned the election results, claiming that the recount was “incomprehensible”.
According to the former prime minister, the rejection of these commissioners made the publication of the results “illegal” because the legislation – as he assures himself – establishes that all IEBC decisions must be taken “unanimously” among its members.
Odinga described the announcement as a “major setback” for Kenyan democracy, which plunged the country into a “serious political and legal crisis”.
“We totally reject the conclusions announced by Chebukati. We will consider all available legal remedies (to challenge the IEBC investigation). There is no president-elect,” he added.
Under Kenyan law, the former prime minister has seven days from the announcement of the results to appeal to the country’s Supreme Court.
And once this complaint has been filed, the Court has a statutory period of 14 days to decide.
Odinga, 77, ran for the fifth time in Kenya’s presidential election last Tuesday, after decades without a victory as the permanent opposition candidate.
After the 2007 election defeat, suspected fraud allegations sparked a wave of ethnic violence in Kenya that killed more than 1,100 people and forced 600,000 to flee their homes.
In August 2017, allegations of irregularities in the electoral process were upheld by the Supreme Court for the first time and it was decided to repeat the vote by declaring it invalid.
However, Odinga boycotted these second elections, considering that the necessary reforms were not implemented.
After an intense election campaign, millions of Kenyans voted 9th in a general election that was proceeding calmly except for a few isolated incidents.
However, the investigation was marred by accusations of fraud, although supporters and politicians of the Ruto and Odinga parties did not present clear and convincing evidence.
Unless stopped by the courts, Ruto will become Kenya’s fifth president since its independence in 1963, replacing Uhuru Kenyatta, who served the second and final five-year term permitted by the Constitution.
source: Noticias
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