Kenyan President actually lost election, exit poll indicates

[ck4829]

An exit poll carried out on behalf of a U.S. government-backed foundation indicated that Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki suffered a resounding defeat in last month's disputed election, according to officials with knowledge of the document.

The poll by the Washington -based International Republican Institute — not yet publicly released— further undermines Kibaki's claims of a narrow re-election victory. The outcome has sparked protests and ethnically driven clashes nationwide, killing hundreds.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga led Kibaki by roughly 8 percentage points in the poll, which surveyed voters as they left polling places during the election Dec. 27 , according to one senior Western official who's seen the data, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. That's a sharp departure from the results that Kenyan election officials certified, which gave Kibaki a winning margin of 231,728 votes over Odinga, about 3 percentage points.

U.S. and European observers have criticized the official results, which came after long, unexplained delays in counting the votes, primarily from Kibaki strongholds. Jendayi Frazer , the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said over the weekend that there were "serious irregularities in the vote tallying, which made it impossible to determine with certainty the final result."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080114/wl_mcclatchy/2815176

[tekisui]

1. Nearly 700 people have died, so far.

With large protests coming, and police with shoot-to-kill orders.

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. Just sore losermen.... Ask any Republican!

[dflprincess]

3. I suppose it's too late to have the "U.S. government backed foundation"

look at the U.S. exit polls from 2000 and 2004?

[Warren Stupidity]

4. This was reported at the time. To no avail. International monitors

All cried foul.

"U.S. and European observers have criticized the official results"

Actually our government immediately blessed the Kibaki coup. The EU at least tried to put up an opposition. Later when it was clear that the military was going to back the coup, thus ensuring its survival, we moderated our position to be officially critical while demanding that Odinga 'negotiate' with the coup leaders rather than confront the coup's authority.

Our government does not care at all about democracy.

[NorthernSpy]

5. why do we consider exit polls reliable indicators of election fairness overseas...

... but not here?


:think:

[lurky]

6. Yes.

Exit poll results have been used as a basis for our government (including the B* administration) to condemn a number of foreign elections as fraudulent. The Ukrainian election that led to the Orange Revolution comes to mind.