How IEBC will determine who wins presidency

The race to succeeed President Uhuru Kenyatta has been a neck-and-neck competition between former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto.

With the cliffhanger of a race, how exactly does the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) determine the winner?

The 2010 Constitution requires a presidential election winner to meet two conditions.

First, a candidate must receive more than 50 per cent of the vote (50 per cent plus one vote) and at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in at least 24 of the 47 counties.

After the votes are counted, local officials photograph the final tally sheet and send it to both the constituency and national tallying centres.

The media, political parties, and civil society have been compiling their own tallies based on the final results announced at over 46,000 polling stations.

However, only the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) can declare the presidential election winner after verifying the physical and digital forms submitted to the national tallying centre.

The electoral commission has seven days to tally the results from every part of the country and declare who is the new president.

According to the commission, about 14 million out of the 22 million registered Kenyan voters cast their votes.