Dr Boni Khalwale on Monday night won back his Ikolomani seat, beating off a strong challenge from the Orange Democratic Movement, the dominant party in the region.
Voters in Ikolomani handed New Ford Kenya’s Dr Khalwale 13,208 votes, followed closely by Mr Bernard Shinali of ODM with 10,702.
Ford People’s Collins Matemba came a distant third with 293 votes.
A total of 24, 592 voters out of the registered 35,833 voted in the 63 polling stations in a by-election seen as a fight between ODM and New Ford-K.
The victory for the man popularly referred to as the bull-fighter over Mr Shinali, whom he defeated with a slim margin of 200 votes in the 2007 elections, must have been a relief given the high profile campaigns mounted by the ODM leadership led by deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi.
The defeat is a blow not only to Mr Mudavadi but also ODM which was restamping its authority in the region where it has more MPs than any other party.
Dr Khalwale’s victory may be interpreted as a boost to the presidential ambitions of Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa who camped in the constituency to campaign alongside Housing minister Soita Shitanda for the New Ford-K candidate.
Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) chairman Isaack Ahmed Hassan said the results released were provisional as the person mandated to give the final results was the returning officer in Ikolomani.
Mr Hassan commended the officials in Ikolomani for the speedy transmission. He said the results for the final polling centre was transmitted to the IIEC electronic tallying centre at Laico Regency hotel in Nairobi at exactly 7.57pm. (LIVETEXT: Khalwale wins back Ikolomani seat)
“This was the fastest time recorded by IIEC since the introduction of the electronic transmission of election results,” he said.
Allegations of bribery and intimidation marked the by-election as voters sought to right the wrongs that led to the nullification of Dr Khalwale’s victory in February.
There was heavy police presence as voters streamed to polling stations from 6am.
Save for a heavy downpour that slowed the exercise for at least two hours, there were long queues of voters at most polling stations.
Counter accusations by the candidates marked the early morning press conferences on electoral malpractice.
The returning officer, Mr Benjamin Tarus, said the IIEC had played its role to ensure peaceful voting within the designated polling stations.
He said it was up to security officers deployed to arrest those suspected of attempting to bribe voters.
The exercise closed at 5pm, with the police indicating that 11 people had been arrested for electoral malpractices.
Provincial police boss Benson Kibui said they had received several reports of bribery, prompting the deployment of officers to stop the vice.
Earlier, Mr Shinali said he was confident of “reclaiming his victory stolen in 2007”. He, however, decried cases of bribery and intimidation that had marred the campaigns.
He cast his vote at Lirembe Primary polling station at 6.30am. Dr Khalwale voted at Malinya Primary School at 7am. Dr Matemba cast his vote at Ivonda Primary School after 9am. (IN PICTURES: Ikolomani by-elections)
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