KENYA:European Union observers issued a damning report on Kenya's presidential poll yesterday, saying it had "fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections" and calling for a swift, independent investigation of the results.
President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the election on Sunday evening, despite trailing opposition leader Raila Odinga in all the opinion polls and early counts after Thursday's ballot.
Rioting has since engulfed the country, which, until this weekend, had been regarded as one of the more peaceful and democratic states in Africa.
In its preliminary report on the poll, the EU election observer mission cited examples of vote tallying discrepancies that clearly favoured Mr Kibaki, and listed several constituencies in his heartland where its monitors had been refused entry to counting stations.
There were also suspiciously high turnout figures in several parts of the country.
"Lack of transparency as well as a number of verified irregularities therefore cast doubt on the accuracy of the result of the presidential election as announced by the Electoral Commission of Kenya," Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the chief observer, said.
"We believe that it is vital that an impartial investigation into the accuracy of the presidential results is conducted and the results from all polling stations are published to enable an independent audit to be carried out."
The EU's verdict came a day after the Kenya Election Domestic Observation Forum, responsible for 17,000 local monitors, issued a similarly qualified report, saying the poll had "lost credibility towards the end with the regard to the tallying and announcement of presidential results".
In its report, the EU mission noted that state resources were used for campaign purposes and that the state-owned media were heavily biased towards the ruling Party of National Unity.
While Mr Lambsdorff praised the vote itself, which was largely peaceful and marked by huge turnouts, he said that "problems started after the close of polls".
Though they were supposed to have free access to all counting stations, EU observers were denied permission to enter tallying centres in five constituencies - Imenti North, Imenti Central, Imenti South, Nyeri and Thika - all areas of fervent Kibaki support.
Monitors were also denied access to the tallying room at election headquarters in Nairobi.
The observers' suspicions were raised the day after the vote when results from Central Province, home to Mr Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group, were not announced, even though the region is just a few hours from Nairobi. Results from some remote areas had already been officially released.
Election officials blamed the delay on returning officers, responsible for relaying the results, who had gone missing and were not reachable by phone, despite having been given two mobile handsets.
At the time, several of Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement deputies suggested that the 22 election commissioners - 19 of whom were unilaterally appointed by Mr Kibaki this year, ignoring an agreement to consult the opposition on all new appointments - were waiting until the rest of the country's results were in before inflating the figures from Central Province to give Mr Kibaki a narrow win.
They were correct about the outcome: Mr Kibaki triumphed by 232,000 votes.
The EU said its observers witnessed the announcement of results at about a third of all constituencies.
In two of them, Molo and Kieni, both Kibaki strongholds, he received 50,145 votes and 54,377 votes, but when the tallies were announced by the electoral commission in Nairobi, the count was given as 75,261 and 72,024, a total increase of 42,763 votes.
Mr Lambsdorff said it was impossible to say if similar discrepancies had occurred in the areas where observers were turned away, but said this was "an irregularity in itself".
The government reacted angrily to the report, accusing the EU mission of bias.
"When everything is pro-opposition and anti-government then the observers' role is in doubt," said Amos Kimunya, the finance minister. "Even now we are doubting the independence of observers."
In fact, while the EU report did note that the turnout figures in Mr Kibaki's areas were suspiciously high, it said similar problems were found in Nyanza, a stronghold of Mr Odinga.