Veteran politician Mwai Kibaki and his opposition alliance have won a landslide victory in Kenyan elections, breaking the ruling party's 39-year grip on power, according to figures from an independent body monitoring the election.
With most of the ballots counted, the 71-year-old economist, who is leader of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), had 62.4 percent of the votes, the Institute for Education in Democracy said.
Ruling party candidate Uhuru Kenyatta conceded defeat yesterday in Kenya's presidential election and said he would take up the leadership of the opposition.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"I accept your choice and in particular now concede that Mr. Mwai Kibaki will be the third president of the republic of Kenya," Kenyatta, the candidate of the long-ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU), told a news conference in Nairobi.
"I accept the will of the people," he said.
The electoral commission was expected early yesterday afternoon to confirm that Kibaki, 71, and his NARC had won a large majority in the polls.
The Institute for Education in Democracy, an international donor-funded institute which is part of an umbrella of organizations monitoring the election, said 5,181,886 votes had been counted by 9:30am yesterday, and Kibaki had tallied 3,232,557 votes to Kenyatta's 1,530,713. The remaining votes were shared among three other minor candidates.
Turnout was 56 percent, the institute said. Some 10.5 million Kenyans had registered to vote for president, 210 members of parliament and 2,104 local councilors.
The opposition alliance had captured 121 of 185 parliamentary seats so far counted, compared to KANU's 47, the institute said. The other seats were won by smaller parties.
Kenya has 210 parliamentary constituencies and results from some remote areas, where voting was delayed because of heavy rain, had not been released.
The Electoral Commission had Kibaki leading by a 2-to-1 vote margin. Based on tallies from 135 constituencies, Kibaki received 2,573,395 votes, compared with Kenyatta's 1,223,086, the commission said. NARC had garnered 88 seats in parliament to KANU's 36.
Final official results were expected later yesterday.
Kenyatta was hand-picked by President Daniel arap Moi, who has ruled Kenya for 24 years and is constitutionally obliged to step down at the end of his current five year term.
``The Kenyan people have now spoken, and it is with great joy and humility that we accept their trust in president-elect Kibaki and NARC,'' Raila Odinga, a leading member of NARC, said Saturday as results trickled in.
Kibaki, who has been a leading opposition figure since multiparty politics were reintroduced in 1991, was Moi's vice president from 1978 to 1988.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source