Kenya to Hold Fresh Presidential Election on October 17
Kenya's electoral commission has announced that the country's new presidential elections will take place on October 17, after the country's Supreme Court overturned the result of last month's poll that declared President Uhuru Kenyatta the winner
"A fresh presidential election will be held on the 17th of October 2017," said a statement released on Monday signed by Wafula Chebukati, chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
"This is in conformity with the Supreme Court decision annulling the presidential election held on 8th August 2017."
Kenya's opposition hopeful after nullification of president's election win
Chebukati said only Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who brought the court challenge, would be on the ballot paper, along with their running mates.
On Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga cancelled the results of the August poll saying the election commission had failed to hold a legitimate election and that the results were therefore "invalid, null and void".
He added that the IEBC had committed "irregularities and illegalities" in the transmission of results from polling stations to the national tally centre.
A full explanation of the court's reasoning has yet to be published.
Chebukati said: "It is imperative that a detailed judgement ... is released in order to allow the Commission to identify areas that require improvement."
Odinga's demands
Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips, reporting from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said Odinga's camp had various demands in order for the election to be carried out in a fair way.
"They have been saying that the head of the electoral commission should be replaced, and they want a different company to be involved in the printing of ballot papers. Moreover, they are not happy with the computer method of transmission" said Phillips.
"There are still very contentious issues in a highly charged atmosphere."
Kenyatta has committed to campaigning hard to win the new election, while Odinga has called for IEBC personnel to be replaced in light of the court ruling.
The recent complaint to the Supreme Court was the third time in a row that Odinga had cried foul. The disputed result of the 2007 election triggered widespread violence that left over 1,100 people dead, while in 2013 the Supreme Court threw out Odinga's challenge.
The August 11 declaration of Kenyatta's victory with 54 percent of the vote sparked two days of protests in the slums of Nairobi and Kisumu, traditional opposition strongholds.
At least 21 people, including a baby and a nine-year-old girl, were killed, mostly by police, according to a tally by AFP news agency.
Citation
“Kenya to Hold Fresh Presidential Election on October 17.” Kenya News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 4 Sept. 2017, <www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/kenya-hold-fresh-presidential-election-october-17-170904163102705.html>.
Response
While Al Jazeera is owned and run by the Qatari government, I think that as a news agency it is remarkably unbiased in its portrayal of events in Kenya. They appear to have done a fantastic job of presenting the facts of the news in a straightforward way excluding emotional words in the piece to make it a true news piece without much of the emotional bias that still sometimes appears in news articles.
It appears with this piece the Al Jazeera is presenting the facts to the rest of the world outside of Kenya and as such they have presented the information without the emotional slant that a news agency located inside of Kenya may have. They do not appear to be inciting people to take action in one way or another but indeed merely appear to be presenting what is happening.
I think that one interesting piece of information that this article brought up is that only Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga will be on the voting ballot. I think that this will prove to be a substantial difference in the upcoming reelection as the number of voters who voted for neither of these two, while not immense, will provide a pivotal swing in the election one way or another. I think that in many presidential elections the number of people who vote for neither of the main candidates have a huge effect so throwing them back into the mix could make a large impact on the election.
"A fresh presidential election will be held on the 17th of October 2017," said a statement released on Monday signed by Wafula Chebukati, chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
"This is in conformity with the Supreme Court decision annulling the presidential election held on 8th August 2017."
Kenya's opposition hopeful after nullification of president's election win
Chebukati said only Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who brought the court challenge, would be on the ballot paper, along with their running mates.
On Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga cancelled the results of the August poll saying the election commission had failed to hold a legitimate election and that the results were therefore "invalid, null and void".
He added that the IEBC had committed "irregularities and illegalities" in the transmission of results from polling stations to the national tally centre.
A full explanation of the court's reasoning has yet to be published.
Chebukati said: "It is imperative that a detailed judgement ... is released in order to allow the Commission to identify areas that require improvement."
Odinga's demands
Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips, reporting from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said Odinga's camp had various demands in order for the election to be carried out in a fair way.
"They have been saying that the head of the electoral commission should be replaced, and they want a different company to be involved in the printing of ballot papers. Moreover, they are not happy with the computer method of transmission" said Phillips.
"There are still very contentious issues in a highly charged atmosphere."
Kenyatta has committed to campaigning hard to win the new election, while Odinga has called for IEBC personnel to be replaced in light of the court ruling.
The recent complaint to the Supreme Court was the third time in a row that Odinga had cried foul. The disputed result of the 2007 election triggered widespread violence that left over 1,100 people dead, while in 2013 the Supreme Court threw out Odinga's challenge.
The August 11 declaration of Kenyatta's victory with 54 percent of the vote sparked two days of protests in the slums of Nairobi and Kisumu, traditional opposition strongholds.
At least 21 people, including a baby and a nine-year-old girl, were killed, mostly by police, according to a tally by AFP news agency.
Citation
“Kenya to Hold Fresh Presidential Election on October 17.” Kenya News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 4 Sept. 2017, <www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/kenya-hold-fresh-presidential-election-october-17-170904163102705.html>.
Response
While Al Jazeera is owned and run by the Qatari government, I think that as a news agency it is remarkably unbiased in its portrayal of events in Kenya. They appear to have done a fantastic job of presenting the facts of the news in a straightforward way excluding emotional words in the piece to make it a true news piece without much of the emotional bias that still sometimes appears in news articles.
It appears with this piece the Al Jazeera is presenting the facts to the rest of the world outside of Kenya and as such they have presented the information without the emotional slant that a news agency located inside of Kenya may have. They do not appear to be inciting people to take action in one way or another but indeed merely appear to be presenting what is happening.
I think that one interesting piece of information that this article brought up is that only Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga will be on the voting ballot. I think that this will prove to be a substantial difference in the upcoming reelection as the number of voters who voted for neither of these two, while not immense, will provide a pivotal swing in the election one way or another. I think that in many presidential elections the number of people who vote for neither of the main candidates have a huge effect so throwing them back into the mix could make a large impact on the election.
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