Kenyan opposition leader Rilia Odinga says he will challenge election loss

Opposition figure Laila Odinga said Tuesday that he would challenge the outcome ofKenya'sclose presidential election. President William Ruto was declared the winner, bringing new uncertainty to East Africa's most stable democracy.

Now the country faces weeks of controversy and the possibility that the Supreme Court will order another election. Religious and other leaders have called for calm in a country with a deadly history of post-election violence. No,” Odinga often said to his devoted supporters. In his western Kenya home base of Kisumu, some residents said they were tired of being tear gassed out into the streets.

READ MORE: Kenyan elections: Vice President William Ruto declared winner  

Odinga's first appearance since Kenya's Electoral Commission chairman on Monday declared Root the winner with nearly 50.5% of the vote. Four of the seven commissioners suddenly announced they could not support the result, and Odinga's supporters brawled with the rest of the commissioners at the venue where the announcement was made.

Shortly before Odinga spoke, the four commissioners told journalists that the chairman's final count was his 100.01% and that overvoting would have made a "huge difference." did. They also said they did not give him a chance to discuss the consequences before making the declaration.

"What we saw yesterday was a farcical and blatant disregard for the Constitution." Odinga said, calling the election results "null".

The president-elect called the Commissioner's allegations "sideshow" and said it had no effect on the legitimacy of the declaration. A US Embassy statement on Monday called the proclamation "an important milestone in the election process."

Odinga, 77, is president Aiming for a quarter of a century. His campaign said he would have seven days from Monday's declaration to submit a petition to the Supreme Court, followed by a ruling in 14 days.

Odinga was a noted fighter and spent years in the 1980s promoting multi-party democracy. Detained. He was also a supporter of Kenya's landmark 2010 constitution.

His allegations that his deeply troubled 2007 election was stolen from him led to violence that killed more than 1,000 people. He boycotted his 2017 vote, but his court challenge led to election reform.

The Electoral Commission is widely seen to have increased transparency in this election, and by posting online his more than 46,000 result forms collected from all over the country, the Kenyan We encourage people to do their own counting.

READ MORE: Kenya's presidential election is important. Here's why

On Tuesday, a local election watchdog group announced that tallying tally of parallel votes confirmed official results in a critical check of the process. did.

However, Odinga alleged that he improperly withheld the election results from the rest of the commission until the chairman had declared the winner. No," he said, arguing that the committee's decisions must be made by consensus.

There was no immediate statement from the Election Commission or its chairman. The tally center screens that displayed the cumulative results of the presidential election stopped updating on Saturday and then turned off.

Odinga's campaign hopes to win after Uhuru his President Kenyatta steps down in political twists. but backed former rival Odinga over the vice president. The one he fell for years ago. Some Kenyans say Kenyatta appointed four dissidents last year.

55-year-old president-elect route It appealed to Kenyans by holding elections on economic differences rather than on ethnic differences, which have sometimes had deadly consequences. He portrayed himself as an outsider from humble beginnings, rebelling against the political dynasty of Kenyatta and Odinga, whose father was Kenya's first president and vice president.

Still, last Tuesday's voter turnout dropped to his 65%, with his 56 million Kenyans across the country expressing frustration and fearing the candidate would face rising prices, high unemployment, and rampant expressed a lack of confidence in addressing the issue of corruption. The now wealthy Ruto himself denies multiple allegations of land grabbing and other forms of corruption.

Ruto's past also included a Crimes Against Humanity indictment by the International Criminal Court for his role in the 2007 election riots. It was dropped amid allegations of witness intimidation.

More and more African leaders issued statements congratulating Ruto, but Kenya's outgoing president remained silent.

© 2022 The Canadian Press