Tensions rise in Kenya over election

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NAIROBI, Kenya, March 7 (UPI) -- Political party officials in Kenya alleged preliminary presidential election results have been "doctored" and have called for vote counting to be halted.

Kenyans headed to the polls Monday to vote in the first presidential election in the country since 2007, when accusations of vote-rigging led to violent ethnic clashes in which more than 1,100 people died, The New York Times reported.

Results were supposed to be in shortly within days of the election, but a crash in the election counting system has forced vote to be counted by hand.

Preliminary results from the election show Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court for allegedly inciting violence in Kenya's last election, leading Prime Minister Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement party, 53 to 41 percent.

"We have evidence that the results we are receiving have been doctored," said Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, Odinga's running mate. "The national tallying process lacks integrity and has to be stopped."

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has yet to respond to the ODM's allegations, The Financial Times reported.

Kenyatta's Jubilee party has also made allegations of vote-rigging, but said the count should continue.

"We think the count should go ahead; Kenyans have waited patiently long enough; observers have given IEBC a great deal of support ... and we urge those organizations to persuade Mr. Odinga if they have influence with him to have the election continue," a Jubilee official said.

Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, the secretary-general of the ODM, said his party will file an injunction to stop the vote counting if the IEBC does not do so on its own.

"We said we would go to court if we did not accept the results. Now we are saying going to court after they've finished this process is too late. They are committing an illegality," he said.