An electoral body commissioner Prof. Abdi Guliye has urged the losers of the presidential election to concede defeat, saying the process has been transparent and open like never before.
Prof Guliye was speaking on Thursday in a routine press briefing of the IEBC, as the tallying of the election results was underway at Bomas of Kenya.
“For the first time, we have seen many losers in various seats concede defeat,” Guliye said. “It is because they have tallied their results and acknowledged that they were defeated because the results are open to the public. We hope the same spirit continues even in the presidential race.”
The commissioner said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has tried to make the entire process as open as possible so that losers won’t see any need to contest the outcome in a court of law. Nonetheless, he said IEBC couldn’t prevent anyone from going to court.
“It is their right to go to court if and when they feel aggrieved. We are ready to defend our position,” he said.
Guliye urged the agents of the presidential candidates to use the API rights to get Form 34As or use the public portal to save time when they shall be counter-checking with the original physical forms at the Bomas of Kenya vote tallying center.
“We request patience and calmness. We are working to deliver the results at the earliest possible time,” IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
Even though the exercise was transparent and open, Guliye urged the election observers, monitors, and the press not to take photos of what was going on at the tallying desks in Bomas.
“We have accorded you a lot of cooperation and respect. Please respect the faces of our officers. We don’t want them to be splashed all over,” he said.
The commission’s chairman, Wafula Chebukati, asked the public to be calm, regardless of the different results displayed by the TV stations, arguing each media house is using its own tallying criteria. However, he said the result should be the same and reiterated that only IEBC has the mandate of announcing winners.
Chebukati said 99.84 percent of the total Form 34As had already been transmitted to the IEBC portal by the time he was addressing the press. The forms are readily accessible to the public. He said they were following up on the remaining polling stations, which had not transmitted their Form 34-As to the portal.
Starting today (Thursday), constituency returning officers from the 290 constituencies in the country will physically deliver original Form 34Bs at Bomas. The commission will verify the results in the forms and counter-check with the Form 34As before displaying them on a screen at Bomas.
Chebukati asked the public to be patient, as the Constitution gives IEBC seven days to deliver the results.
“We request patience and calmness. We are working to deliver the results at the earliest possible time,” Chebukati said.
But the country is anxious. Kenyans on social media are wondering why it’s taking so long for the IEBC to announce the presidential results. Rival camps led by Azimio are claiming victory, citing their own tallying.