Kenyan newspapers and television stations are reporting that opposition candidate Raila Odinga has opened up a significant lead over President Mwai Kibaki.
The two leading Kenyan daily newpapers are tracking the results live on their websites. The East African Standard shows that Odinga well ahead of Kibaki.
The Nation's results show a closer race, with Odinga with 50.5 percent and Kibaki with 42.6 percent of the vote.
The results are as of 6:15 PM (3:15 GMT) local time.
Kalonzo Musyoka is in a distant third place.
The television stations, however, have given Odinga an even bigger lead. Reuters as of 6 PM local time reported that according to KTV, Odinga has 2.98 million votes to 2.02 million for Kibaki, while NTV earlier reported that Odinga is leading with 1.84 million votes compared with 1.22 million for Kibaki. These results are unofficial. Officials estimate that out of about 14 million eligible voters, about 10 million Kenyans cast votes.
The official counting of the votes is going more slowly than expected, and at 5 PM local time, officials announced the results from just 28 of the 210 constituencies, putting Kibaki ahead with 693,195 votes to Odinga's 517,800 votes. Full results are expected Saturday.
Both Kibaki and Odinga are winning overwhelmingly in their home provinces, according to the Standard's live updates. Kibaki and Odinga are winning more than 95 percent of the vote in Central and Nyanza Province respectively.
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If Kibaki is going to catch up, he is going to have to hope there are a lot of uncounted votes in Central Province, one of the largest provinces in Kenya, and in Nairobi and Rift Valley, two provinces in which he was expected to perform better in. He has time to catch up - even unofficial results have counted only about 40 to 45 percent of the vote.
An exit poll performed by the Institute for Education in Democracy showing yesterday that Kibaki was winning has been taken down from the organization's website. The organization did not want to confuse voters, Reuters reported.
Onto the news roundup (free registration may be required):
Reuters has all of the unofficial election results;
The New York Times reports that the opposition appears to be "sweeping" the polls;
The Washington Post calls Odinga's lead "strong"; and
AlJazeera calls the race "too close to call."
