Vote tallying began early Wednesday morning at Barani Secondary School tallying Centre in Malindi Constituency after a night-long counting exercise in all the 166 polling stations.
Exhausted presiding officers and their deputies started trickling into the tallying centre from about 2.30am but they had to wait until the wee hours of Wednesday to start handing over election materials in their possession.
Constituency Returning Officer Mwanajuma Ali started tallying and declaring the results at about 4am and by 10am today results from only eight out of the 166 polling centres had been delivered.
However, supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party’s Malindi Parliamentary and Malindi Town Ward candidates Amina Laura Mnyazi and Rashid Odhiambo respectively started early celebrations as results from their respective agents indicated that their candidates were poised to win.
Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance party candidate Raila Odinga was leading in the constituency with more than 63 percent of the votes tallied followed by Deputy President William Ruto with about 36 per cent while Agano and Roots parties’ candidates had not passed the one percentage mark each.
Former Chief Administrative Secretary Gideon Mung’aro, who is vying for the Kilifi governorship, was leading with 57.5 per cent followed by Malindi Member of Parliament Aisha Jumwa, who had about 27.6 per cent of the tallied votes.
Lawyer George Kithi was third with about 12 per cent while the other four candidates Franco Esposito, Alphonce Mbaru, Noti Kombe and Michael Tinga had less than one per cent of the tallied votes each. Tinga withdrew from the race at the eleventh hour but his name was on the ballot paper.
If the trend will continue as it was, incumbent Kilifi County Woman Member of Parliament Gertrude Mbeyu could easily recapture the seat given she was commanding a comfortable lead in the constituency with about 67 percent of the vote against nominated senator Christine Zawadi (21 per cent) and businesswoman Juliet Riziki (23 per cent).
Official results from the tallying centre are expected to be announced later today as the tallying exercise is very slow, but anxiety has gripped many supporters of the seemingly winning candidates, who have milled outside the tallying centre.
Security officers led by Deputy County Commissioner Thuo wa Ngugi and Sub County Police Commander John Kemboi spent the entire night at the tallying centre to provide security to IEBC officials and the election materials.
By Emmanuel Masha
