Probe team disagreed over vote tallying

Findings on the counting and tallying of last year’s election results were a major bone of contention at the Kriegler commission, the Nation has established.

Sources privy to the discussions revealed that the issue caused divisions as the commission compiled its final report.

The discontent by some of the commissioners is also highlighted in a brief that the Kriegler team presented to President Kibaki as they handed in their report on Wednesday.

The report dismissed allegations that rigging of the presidential results took place at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre where tallying was done, but the brief indicates that two members of the team objected to this finding.

The Nation has established that the two members the brief refers to were the commissioners representing ODM. One of the ODM commissioners told the Nation that they were not ready to comment on the report Thursday since it had not been made public.

A finding indicating that the barring of presidential agents and observers from the tallying centre could not be evidence of fraud was one of those opposed by the commissioners.

The said commissioners were also opposed to the conclusion that claims of inflated votes when completing form 17As could not be substantiated.