25 September 2008
Nairobi — Orange Democratic Movement Parliamentary candidates took early lead in Sotik and Bomet constituencies at the start of vote counting on Thursday night.
ODM's Joyce Laboso had 13,978 votes against the closest rival Alexander Sitienei of United Democratic Movement's 5,775. Out of 145 polling centres, 78 had been counted.
In Bomet, Mrs Beatrice Kones of ODM widened the gap with 11,326 against her close rival Nick Salat of Kanu had 5,784 after 60 centres of the 151 polling stations had been counted as at 0.30 pm.
The by-elections were held on Thursday following the death of former Roads minister Kipkalia Kones and assistant minister Lorna Loboso in a plane crash on June 10.
The two constituencies were second to hold elections after the December 2007 General Election. Five others, Emuhaya, Ainamoi, Kilgoris, Embakasi and Wajir North have since gone to polls for a second time.
The elections went on free of any incident but with a low voter turn out. A handful of people went to the polling stations shortly after 6am.
By around 9am the voter turnout was still low. Some observer teams said the exercise started without agents of some political parties at a number of stations.
The Electoral Commission of Kenya returning officer in Bomet, Mr Ibrahim Adan Shabo, said most polling stations opened on time and election material had reached all of them without delays.
Mr Shabo said agents of some political parties did not arrive at their respective polling stations on time but this did not cause delays in voting.
"We started the exercise in the presence of available agents and members of observer teams as we continued receiving those agents who had delayed," he said.
Mr Shabo said voters with double or multiple registrations were not allowed to cast ballots. Only those whose names appeared in the electors' registers voted, he added.
The widow of former Roads minister Kipkalya Kones, popularly known as Beatrice Kones but is entered as Pauline Cherono Kones in ECK records, was the first to vote among the eight candidates contesting the Bomet seat.
Mrs Kones, who is contesting on an ODM ticket, said she was impressed by the general organisation of the polls although there were cases in which some people were bribed to vote against her.
"So far voting is going on smoothly and we hope the same spirit continues until the end of the exercise," she said. The Bomet seat fell vacant after the death of Mr Kones in an air crash.
Former Bomet MP Nick Salat, who is contesting in the constituency on a Kanu ticket, said he had not seen any anomaly despite the low turnout in the morning.
At Sironet Primary School in Sotik constituency with 320 registered voters, only 45 of them had showed up by 9.30am.
The area returning officer, Mr Derrick Hamisi Phombea, said the apathy was mainly witnessed in rural areas. He said the townships recorded a slightly better turnout.
Reports by Patrick Mayoyo, Daniel Otieno, Sollo Kiragu and Geoffrey Rono
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
