Kenyans rejected a draft constitution that was supported by President Mwai Kibaki and his allies, an electoral official said yesterday, capping months of bitter divisions in the run up to the country's first referendum since independence in 1963.
Electoral Commission spokesman Mani Lemaiyan said preliminary results showed that the charter had been voted down. He said he would not provide figures until the certified results had been brought to electoral headquarters from all over the country.
Opponents of the charter "have carried the day," Lemaiyan said.
The independent Nation Television reported that 58 percent of votes counted so far opposed the draft constitution, while 41 percent supported the charter. The station cited a parallel tally carried out by reporters it stationed countrywide. The results were based on some 5 million votes.
The country has about 11.6 million registered voters out of a population of 34 million. Turnout figures were not immediately available, Lemaiyan said.
Monday's referendum will be decided by a simple majority of votes cast and there is no minimum voter turnout to make it valid.
Late Monday, Electoral Commission Chairman Samuel Kivuitu told journalists, "I think we are satisfied [with the way voting went]. There were small problems here and there, but those of us who have seen many elections, I will say that we -- that is Kenyans -- have done well."
Kenyans voted Monday at more than 19,000 polling stations across the country, in the country's first referendum since independence from Britain. They cast ballots marked with a banana for "yes" and an orange for "no." A third of Kenyan adults cannot read.
They were voting on a draft constitution that President Kibaki has said is designed to curb decades of abuse of power. But opponents of the draft charter say it would further entrench the president's enormous powers.
Public rejection of the draft charter would undermine Kibaki and his allies who supported the draft. The next general elections are scheduled for 2007.
Scores of Kenyans claimed voting irregularities on Monday.
As tensions rose over the vote counting, hundreds of people chased anti-riot police from Nairobi's vast Kibera slum, which is a stronghold of a leading opponent of the draft charter.
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