Raila Odinga Bows Out Of Kenya Election Re-Run

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga has pulled out of the October 26, 2017 election re-run.

Mr Odinga said his withdrawal would give the electoral commission enough time to introduce reforms that will help deliver a more credible election. The Supreme Court annulled the result of the original 8 August poll after finding irregularities and declaring it “neither transparent or verifiable”.

The electoral commission had declared incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta the winner. It said Mr Kenyatta had won by a margin of 1.4 million votes.

The re-run was due to take place on 26 October, but Mr Odinga said: “After deliberating on our position in respect of the upcoming election, considering the interests of the people of Kenya, the region and the world at large, we believe that all will be best served by the party vacating its presidential candidature in the election scheduled for 26 October 2017.”

Odinga threatens re-run election boycott

Mr. Odinga in September threatened to boycott the election re-run if he did not get “constitutional guarantees”.

He told journalists that the fresh vote must be held in an environment where everything that went wrong can be corrected.

“We know exactly what transpired in these last elections, we know what the IEBC did and we know that if we were to go back there will be no different results and that’s why will say there will be no elections on the 17 October,” he said.

Source: BBC