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Kibaki's
party 'pressured me |
01/01/2008
22:29 - (SA)
Nairobi - The head of Kenya's electoral
commission defended on Tuesday his decision
to announce Mwai Kibaki's disputed
re-election win saying he had come under
pressure from the president's ruling party.
Commission chief Samuel Kivuitu said
European envoys and the state-owned human
rights commission had urged him to delay the
announcement for a week while a probe was
carried out.
In the end he admitted giving in to pressure
from the ruling Party of National Unity and
the smaller Orange Democratic Party-Kenya,
which both wanted the results released
immediately.
"I wanted to resign, but I thought that if I
resign, citizens would think that I am
afraid so I decided to bear the problem
until the end," he told reporters in the
capital.
"I was being pushed from many sides... then
I made a decision at once," he added.
Kivuitu on Sunday declared President Mwai
Kibaki the winner of the December 27 ballot
despite allegations his party had tampered
with the results.
Angry supporters of defeated opposition
leader Raila Odinga went on the rampage and
the lid was lifted off tribal tensions
resulting in riots and inter-ethnic violence
that has left at least 300 people dead.
Odinga flatly rejected the outcome of the
elections while European Union observers
said the polls fell short of international
standards and called for an independent
audit into the results.
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