Yes, vote tallying had problems, admits Kivuitu

Here it is:

Yes, vote tallying had problems, admits Kivuitu
Story by DAVID MUGONYI
Publication Date: 1/3/2008

ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu has admitted there were problems in the tallying of presidential votes.
And when he demanded all constituency tallies, he found some figures were not the ones he had personally seen, he said.
As of Tuesday, he added, the commission had not received the official Form 16 from four constituencies. The forms give the actual figures from constituencies signed by the returning officer.
It is those forms that had raised a furore when ODM leaders disputed the results, arguing that 49 constituencies had not submitted them and that the ECK was merely using a computer generated form that could be done anywhere.
The commission had delayed announcing the presidential results because it had not received the forms which are normally signed by the returning officer to confirm the true results. Mr Kivuitu also revealed for the first time that an ECK officer had shown him two constituencies whose results had been tampered with before the final results were released. And, although he had asked that the original figures be the ones to be included in the final tally, this was not the case as the inflated figures were allowed to stand.
He said the officer had shown him forms of two constituencies — Juja and Kieni — whose results had been tampered with and the returning officer had not counter-signed, as is the normal practice.
A shocked Mr Kivuitu said: “What surprised me was the files I saw yesterday (Tuesday) were very clean and the two files I saw (previously) were very dirty because of the cancellation.”
But he defended his decision to announce the results, saying they had been approved by all commissioners although he added that some of them were engaged in “stupid quarrels”.
Asked why he had not established the authenticity of the results before announcing, he said: “I announced the totals after all commissioners agreed after analysing them the whole night.”
I insisted
He added: “But when I insisted to get all the files with form 16, I was brought the files yesterday (Tuesday) which had the forms except from four constituencies and the results which I saw there from Juja and Kieni were the ones that were altered. We are still investigating, but I was shocked, absolutely shocked!”
Mr Kivuitu also said although he had seen dirty forms during tallying, those that he was brought when he demanded were very clean. “There seems to be something going on there which I don’t know. I got quite disappointed when observers said they were not being allowed into the building (tallying centre),” he said in an interview.
He said it was then that he decided to go there and see what was happening.
And he added: “When I went to the room later, one officer told me there is something happening here…look at these files — Juja and Kieni — I was amazed to see results which had been signed by the returning officer had been altered and not counter signed.”
Mr Kivuitu said there could be the court alternative or mediation between President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga to resolve the issue through a recount.
However, the second alternative must only be entered into with a solemn agreement that if there was an anomaly, there should be another election like it happened in Lesotho within a year.
He said he wanted to get to the bottom of the matter and could only quit after establishing the truth or if there were roadblocks to stop him from getting to know what happened. He had informed his commissioners that he was dissatisfied.
And he added: “There was immense pressure on me to announce the results in order to avert insecurity which I was advised was building up due to the delay.”
ECK was seeking a legal opinion from two lawyers from the continent to advise them on how to approach the issue.