Observer group in Kenya says its projections tally with official results from IEBC

The Elections Observation Group (ELOG) has revealed the strategies they used to monitor the pre and post election process as conducted by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The independent observer group deployed one long-term observer in each of the 290 constituencies, 40 media monitors, and 46 electoral violence monitors, to observe and report on the pre-election environment.

For Election Day, ELOG deployed over 5,000 observers across all 47 counties and 290 constituencies. Of these, 1,000 Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) observers were recruited, trained and deployed to a nationally representative random sample of polling stations.

"PVT is an advanced Election Day observation methodology, which allows ELOG to confidently comment on the Election Day and tabulation processes," stated ELOG in a press briefing on Tuesday, August 16.

NAIROBI, KENYA - 2022/08/09: A Kenyan woman casts her vote during the general elections in South C ward, Lang'ata Constituency (Photo by Cyprian Kimutai Limo) Pulse Live Kenya

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According to ELOG, PVT involves deploying highly trained observers to assess the conduct of the opening, voting and counting processes as well as to assess the official vote count.

PVT observers observed all the processes in sampled polling stations and then recorded the official figures as announced by the presiding officers at those stations.

The official votes count from the representative random sample of polling stations were then subjected to rigorous integrity and quality checks and analysed to draw projections.

From their analysis, the group found out that their tabulations matched with what IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati announced on August 15.

An IEBC official applies ink on a voters' pinky finger as an indication that she took part in the voting process in South C ward, Lang'ata constituency Pulse Live Kenya

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Chebukati at Bomas of Kenya revealed that Ruto won the presidential election after garnering 7,176,141 votes (50.49%) against Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga who scored 6,942,930 (48.85%) votes.

"In light of our assessment of the Election Day processes and given that IEBC figures fall within the projected ranges, the PVT projections, therefore, corroborates the official results," stated Anne Ireri, the group’s chairperson.

It should be noted that the group's projection gave Ruto 50.7 percent while Raila had 48.7 percent with a margin of error of +/-2.1 percent.