Angolans have headed to the polls in a historic election marking the end of the 38-year rule of ailing President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, with his MPLA party expected to retain power but with a reduced majority.

Polling stations opened on Wednesday across the country – a former Portuguese colony – amid reports of a slow start in the nation’s capital of Luanda, where Dos Santos and his hand-picked successor and front-runner, Defense Minister Joao Lourenco, are due to cast their ballots later in the day.

Dos Santos’ retirement, which was reportedly prompted by ill health, has triggered the biggest political transition in decades for Angola, a leading oil exporter in Africa. He will, however, keep his position as the MPLA head. Nearly 9.3 million Angolans are registered to cast their ballots to decide the fate of the country’s 220-member National Assembly. The winning party will then appoint the president.

The main opposition challenger in the election is the UNITA party, a former rebel group that battled the MPLA in Angola’s civil war. The party has ruled the nation since its 1975 independence from Portugal. The MPLA, which stands for People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, won the 2012 polls with 72 percent of the votes amid widespread allegations of voting irregularities.

Meanwhile, at a weekend rally in front of thousands of MPLA party supporters, Dos Santos, a frail-looking 74-year-old, made a brief appearance to endorse the likely new president. “We have no doubt about the victory of the MPLA, and our candidate will be the future president, which is why I ask you: August 23, vote MPLA … and Joao Lourenco,” he said in a weak voice.

Dos Santos has been dogged by reports of illness, and his regular visits to Spain for “private” reasons fuelled criticism that his health status was being hidden from ordinary Angolans. Despite its oil wealth, however, Angola is plagued by poverty, corruption and human rights issues, though some observers argue that the new leadership may open the way to more accountability.

Source: Presstv

European Union observers in Kenya have called on the election commission to publish all remaining forms showing vote tallies on its website to ensure the transparency and accuracy of the process.

“The timing of such information being made public is critical given that petitions relating to the presidential race must be filed within seven days of the results announcement,” the mission said in a statement on Wednesday.

Andrew Limo, an election commission spokesman, said about 2,900 of the 41,000 forms showing results at individual polling stations were not yet online.

President Uhuru Kenyatta was re-elected in the Aug. 8 vote but opposition leader Raila Odinga has rejected results, saying they were rigged.

(Source: Reuters)

Kenya’s election commission has declared incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of the country’s disputed presidential election. “Having fulfilled the requirement by law… I therefore wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta… as president-elect,” said polls commission chairman Wafula Chebukati on Friday.

Kenyatta won the Tuesday polls with 54.27 percent of votes, beating his rival Raila Odinga, who scored 44.74 percent, the commission said. Following the announcement, angry protests erupted in Odinga’s strongholds. Reports say businesses are being looted and set on fire in the slum of Kibera in the capital city of Nairobi, while gunshots are heard in the port city of Kisumu.

In comments directed to opposition leader Odinga, Kenyatta called for national unity and peace. “I reach out to you, I reach out to all your supporters. To our brothers, our worthy competitors, we are not enemies, we are all citizens of the same republic,” Kenyatta said.

Kenyatta, 55, the son of Kenya’s first president after independence from British colonial rule, campaigned on a record of key infrastructure projects – many backed by China – while claiming strong economic growth. Odinga, 72, who is also the son of a leader of the independence struggle, presented himself as a champion of the poor and a fierce critic of corruption in the country.

Supporters of Kenya’s incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta celebrate after he was announced winner of the presidential election in the capital city of Nairobi on August 11, 2017. A day after the vote, Odinga rejected the preliminary results which put Kenyatta in the lead, claiming that the election commission’s voting systems had come under cyberattack, leading to “massive and extensive” vote fraud.

“You can only cheat the people for so long,” the opposition leader said. “The 2017 general election was a fraud.” The hacking claims prompted Kenya’s electoral commission to react and counter the allegations, assuring Kenyans that “all is well.” Tensions have been high since late last month, when Chris Msando, a key administrator of the biometric voting system, was murdered.

Despite Odinga’s call for calm, a group of his supporters took to the streets to rally against the preliminary results. The protests, however, turned violent after police forces intervened and fired tear gas at the crowd.

Two protesters were killed in Nairobi as riot police opened fire during the clashes on Wednesday. Kenyatta is broadly regarded as a representative of the nation’s largest ethnic group of Kikuyu, while Odinga is affiliated with the Luo voting bloc, which has never won a presidential race.

The top opposition candidate, who made his fourth presidential run, has further accused his rival of stealing victory from him through vote rigging both in the 2007 and 2013 polls. In 2007, the disputed election led to two months of ethnically-driven political violence that killed nearly 1,100 people and displaced 600,000 others.

Source: Presstv

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has claimed “massive fraud” in the general elections, rejecting the preliminary results, which have put his longtime rival, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, in the lead.

According to the official website of Kenya’s election commission (IEBC), Kenyatta was holding on to a commanding lead with 54.8 percent, while Odinga has only secured 44.4 percent after nearly 13 million ballots were counted from more than 35,000 of the 40,833 polling stations.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Odinga claimed that the results of Tuesday’s general elections are not reliable as the election commission’s voting systems had come under cyberattack, leading to “massive and extensive” vote fraud.

“Hackers gained entry into our election database” and “created errors,” Odinga said. “You can only cheat the people for so long,” the opposition leader said. “The 2017 general election was a fraud.”

He called on his supporters to maintain calm, but said “I don’t control the people.” Odinga’s deputy, Kalonzo Muyoka, also made a similar call, adding, however, that the opposition might urge “action” at a later date, without elaborating.

The opposition figure had earlier in the day decried the tallying process as a “sham.” Odinga alleged that the IEBC had not provided documents showing how the tallies were obtained, saying “it is the machine that has voted. These results are wrong.”

The hacking claims prompted Kenya’s election commission to react and counter the allegations, assuring Kenyans that “all is well.” Despite Odinga’s call for calm, a group of his supporters took to the streets to protest the results, chanting “No Raila, no peace.”

The protest, however, turned violent after police forces intervened and fired tear gas at the crowd. At least one protester was killed as riot police opened fire during the clashes in Kisii County, said Leonard Katana, a regional police commander.

Kenyatta, 55-year-old son of Kenya’s first president after independence from British colonial rule, campaigned on a record of key infrastructure projects — many backed by China – while claiming strong economic growth. Odinga, who is also the 72-year-old son of a leader of the independence struggle, presented himself as a champion of the poor as well as a fierce critic of corruption in the country.

Many voters, however, were expected to vote along ethnic lines. Kenyatta is broadly regarded as the candidate of the nation’s largest ethnic group of Kikuyu, while Odinga is affiliated with the Luo voting bloc, which has never won a presidential race.

The top opposition candidate, who is making his fourth presidential run, has further accused his rival of stealing victory from him through rigging both in 2007 and 2013 polls. In 2007, the disputed election led to two months of ethnically-driven political violence that killed nearly 1,100 people and displaced 600,000 others.

The challenged poll in 2013 was referred to the courts, and ended largely peacefully even though Odinga emerged defeated. Tensions have been high leading up to this year’s election since late last month, when Chris Msando, a key administrator of the biometric voting system, was murdered.

“We fear that this is the precise reason why Mr. Chris Msando was assassinated,” Odinga emphasized, pointing to his allegation of fraud. However, IEBC appeared undeterred by Odinga’s statements.

Commissioner Roslyn Akombe said despite a request by an unnamed political party to halt releasing preliminary results the body has decided to “continue to display the results.”

Source: Presstv