Court to decide on Bonchari MP’s fate in six weeks

By ROBERT NYASATO

Kisii, KENYA; An election petition against Bonchari MP Zepedeo Opore came to a close with the Ford People legislator asking the court to disregard results from one polling station.

The MP will know his fate in the next 6 weeks when the court shall deliver its judgement.

Making his final submissions before trial judge Justice Ruth Sitati, the MP through his lawyer Ken Nyaundi pleaded with the court to invoke section 81(1) a of election rules to strike out results of Botoro Polling Station stream two in respect of all parliamentary candidates.

The stream in question had 459 registered voters but on March 4, a total of 473 votes were cast indicating an excess of 14 votes. Opore garnered 44 votes while the petitioner Oroo Oyioka of Kanu got 274 votes in the stream.

“The election rules provide that such results should be excluded from the final tally to cure the irregularity,” the MP submitted.

Oyioka had filed the petition seeking a recount and scrutiny of the process and whoever emerges top be declared MP by the court.

After a recount in court, Oyioka amassed 8967 votes beating Opore by four. The MP garnered 8963 after the recount.Parties in the suit largely agreed that the electoral process was fairly conducted but expressed issues with the tallying process.

If the court grants Opore’s prayer to exclude Botoro results, the MP will lead by 8919 votes while Oyioka will trail him by 226 votes at 8693.

Oyioka had sued Opore, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Returning Officer Peter Resa urging the court to declare him winner after a recount of votes.

Through his lawyer Gilbert Nyamweya, Oyioka said the RO ad failed to correctly transfer results from forms 35 to form 36 as per the electoral law.

“My client won this election but his victory was snatched by errors committed by poll officials. Opore was declared winner with 8,992 votes against my client’s 8,887 votes yet the recount indicated the contrary,” submitted Nyamweya.

Citing the 2010 South Mugirango election petition where Omingo Magara’s election was nullified on grounds of irregularities, the petitioner further argued that failure to sign statutory documents like forms 35 was a serious electoral flaw.

Charles Rigoro lawyer representing IEBC submitted that the election in Bonchari was conducted as per the law terming claims by the petitioner that the returning officer did not announce results publicly as unfounded.

“The result was re-tallied four times to verify the accuracy before Opore was declared winner,” said Rigoro. Justice Sitati concluded hearing of the petition and fixed September 27, this year for delivery of her verdict.