Kenyan poll body urges calm
2008-06-10 12:06
Nairobi - Kenya's poll body appealed for calm on Tuesday ahead of by-elections seen as a litmus test for a fragile unity government set up after deadly violence following a contested presidential vote in December.
As Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) continued wrangling, the Election Commission of Kenya urged both sides to respect the law.
"They should preach peace, tolerance and reconciliation and exercise maximum restraint and tolerate each others political choices," it said in a statement published in local newspapers.
"They should avoid engaging in violence, bad language and other malpractices like vote buying," it added.
Voters would on Wednesday elect parliamentarians for the seats of two MPs who were shot dead earlier this year and another, Kenneth Marende, who relinquished his seat when he was elected parliament speaker.
Rival tribes
The two other ballots would be held in constituencies where the chaos that followed the December 27 general polls prevented the results from being announced, raising fears that fresh disputes could erupt there next week.
They would also elect 51 civic representatives.
Observers had deplored that despite the more than 1 500 deaths and hundreds of thousands of displacements that marred the December polls and their aftermath, politicians had used ethnic rhetoric during the run-up to the by-election.
Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan brokered a power-sharing deal on February 28 in which Odinga became prime minister. This curbed the violence paving the way for a coalition government whose marriage had been acrimonious.
On Monday, the prime minister's party accused some ministers from President Kibaki's PNU of bribing voters, intimidating rivals and misusing state resources.
The main potential flashpoint on Wednesday was expected to be the Kilgoris constituency, where issues of land that had yet to be addressed by the unity cabinet had sparked recurring clashes between rival tribes.