Nairobi — The December 27 General Election failed to meet international standards on human rights and civil liberties, an international observer mission has said.

In its final verdict, the Commonwealth Observer Mission maintains that the election had major flaws which occurred mainly in the post-polling period.

"It is therefore our view that the election process following the closing of the polls fell short of acceptable international standards," says the group.

The Kenya General Election report says the events that have unfolded since the polling day had eroded the confidence of the Kenyan people. The manner in which the results were announced had raised suspicion and caused widespread mistrust, it states.

Major disincentive

While releasing the document in Britain, Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon, said the Electoral Commission of Kenya had not succeeded in establishing the integrity of the tallying process "thereby bringing the validity of the election results into question".

"This was despite the many positive aspects of the pre-election and polling day procedures, when Kenyans came out in large numbers to vote," he said.

While the observer mission welcomed ECK's statement that those aggrieved lodge petitions through the courts, the team questioned the judicial process as an alternative, saying it took too long to solve election disputes.

"We noted that in the run-up to this election, cases that had been lodged some years earlier were still making their way through the courts," the team adds.

It continues: "Such delays act as a major disincentive to using the judicial process to finalise issues arising from a disputed election."

Independence of ECK

To prevent the problem in future, the observer mission calls for the independence of the ECK and insulation of the institution from political interference.

"It is recommended that the process for appointing ECK commissioners be subjected to screening and confirmation by Parliament," the report says.

It also proposes that consideration be given to reducing the time scale allowed for submitting an election petition and requiring them to be heard and determined in court within a set period.

The delay in declaring the outcome resulted in Kenyans experiencing significant concerns about the validity of the results.

The report states that some returning officers failed to tabulate the results from polling stations in the constituency and transmit them immediately to ECK headquarters.

"This should have ensured a speedy and verifiable set of results at the conclusion of tabulation."

However, the observer mission adds, that the procedure was not followed leading the ECK chairman to announce that he was unable to trace returning officers in 21 constituencies.

The document accuses the national broadcaster, KBC, of biased coverage in the run-up to the General Election.

Credibility of polls

The report comes a few days after the East African Community observer team questioned the credibility of the polls.

The European Union and domestic observers had earlier passed the same verdict, arguing that there were major discrepancies in the tallying of the presidential vote.

The observers accuse both PNU and ODM of holding different Press conferences prior to the announcement of the election results, each saying it had won the General Election.

"This action appears to have led to significant uncertainty and consequent unrest on the streets in many parts of the country, with property damage, looting and loss of life," the document says.

The mission also calls for the implementation of the Political Parties Act 2007, assented to by the President in October, 2007, to enhance democracy.

As a matter of priority, the mission urges the review of processes for transmission and announcement of results.

It also proposes procedures which ought to be incorporated during polling, for instance the introduction of transparent ballot boxes which are clearly marked and have distinguishing colours, requirement for polling staff to issue all three ballot papers at once to a voter, strengthening the capacity to manage polling stations, ensuring the stations have adequate lighting, among others.