A three-judge bench of the High court has said that presidential election results announced at constituency tallying centres will be final.
Justices Aggrey Muchelule, Weldon Korir and Chacha Mwita on Friday also declared various sections of the Election Act illegal.
This followed a case where human rights activist Maina Kiai sought that regulations in Section 83 (2), 87 (2)(c) of the Act be declared null.
Kiai’s lawyer Ben Sianya said the nullified sections had granted IEBC powers to confirm, audit or even verify presidential election results sent by a returning officer.
“We are happy with the High court ruling which declared that once the presidential results have been announced by a returning officer at the constituency level, that result will be final,” he said.
Sianya said those who will have issues with the results will have to seek redress in court.
“This has been the major problem. We hope the battle for supremacy of a national tallying center organised by IEBC should therefore not arise,” he said.
According to Sianya, media houses will be free to pick the results once announced by the constituency returning officers and do their tallying without waiting for IEBC to announce the same.
The ruling comes after the electoral agency allowed the National Super Alliance (NASA) to proceed with their parallel poll tallying plan.
NASA co-principal Raila Odinga said no law bars them from establishing the said tallying centre.
On Thursday, IEBC bowed to pressure and allowed the opposition alliance to operate a parallel tallying system.
The condition is that it’s only for internal use since IEBC is the only body mandated by law to declare election results.
The opposition alliance will therefore implement their vote protection strategy involving 45,000 polling agents.
Raila the team will be deployed countrywide on August 8.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati, after meeting NASA principals, said that the media will also be free to tally and verify results.
