African press review 6 March 2013

Kenya's elections and possible changes to the Zimplants platinum mining deal in Zimbabwe are among the subjects in today's papers...

Uhuru Kenyatta is still leading the race to be Kenya's next president, with an estimated 50% of votes counted.

A clear picture of who won Monday's elections is expected to emerge later this Wednesday morning as Returning Officers arrive at the Bomas national count centre to physically deliver results from their constituencies.

Thirteen thousand polling centres have relayed their results electronically, giving Jubilee flagbearer Uhuru Kenyatta a lead with 2,790,417 with CORD's Raila Odinga trailing on 2,199,092.

About 11.5 million Kenyans took part in the elections.

Odinga has secured 25% of votes in 31 counties while Kenyatta has also garnered 25% in 32 counties, meaning that both men have fulfilled one of the conditions for an outright win in the first round. Apart from the 25% in at least half of the nation's 47 counties, an outright winner also needs 50% of the total valid poll nationwide.

Or does he?

According to the Nairobi-based Standard, Jubilee flag-bearer Uhuru Kenyatta remained ahead of his rivals in the race to State House by about 600,000 votes as counting in the presidential poll neared the halfway mark.

Uhuru held onto his lead over his main rival - CORD’s Raila Odinga - through a long day of counting that saw the gap between the two close slightly. Meanwhile, a row erupted over what percentages electoral officials should use in reporting the incoming results.

As of 1am this morning, 5.6 million votes had been counted: Uhuru had 2,789,900 valid votes (53.4%), while Raila had 2,198,714 (42%). More than 330,000 of the ballots counted were rejected as spoilt votes. Results from about 18,000 polling stations are pending.

A standoff erupted over the exclusion of rejected and disputed votes in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s calculations of the percentages held by the candidates. IEBC has been displaying the percentage for valid votes only. However, CORD pointed out the Constitution sets the threshold for victory at 50 per cent plus one vote for “all votes cast”.

IEBC Chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan last evening announced that the percentages would now be worked out using total votes cast (including rejected and disputed votes). This immediately sparked a protest from the Jubilee alliance, whose officials say he is misinterpreting the law.

According to a separate story in The Standard, inadequate civic education has been blamed for the huge number of rejected votes registered in this year’s General Election.

The regional observersation team said it took up to 10 minutes for an individual to cast his or her ballot in rural areas and between five and eight minutes in urban centres.

The team also said most of the votes spoilt involved the old, some pregnant women and the physically challenged who did not get assistance at voting stations. Overall, the joint team applauded the Kenyan exercise, saying they had been impressed.

The main story in South Africa's financial paper, BusinessDay, says the Impala Platinum’s well-laid plans to navigate the treacherous waters of Zimbabwe’s indigenisation drive hung in the balance on Tuesday, as Harare's Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere moved to implement President Robert Mugabe’s call to revise a compensation deal with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed platinum giant.

Mugabe is adamant that the new indigenous shareholders in Zimplats should not have to pay back the money advanced by Implats to finance the buy-out.

In terms of the agreement, signed in January, new indigenous shareholders were to have taken ownership of 51% of Implats’ Zimbabwe unit, Zimplats, by means of vendor financing advanced by Implats. The accord was seen at the time as a landmark framework to help spread the benefits of mine ownership.

However, following hints dropped by Mugabe at his 89th birthday celebrations late last week, Kasukuwere, the architect of the deal, backtracked and said on Tuesday: "We have to implement what the president has said."

A highly-placed government official said on Tuesday that Mugabe had "basically asked Kasukuwere to make corrections" - after the president had said the platinum reserves Zimbabwe owns should serve as payment for the shareholding ceded.

The move will fuel scepticism over the Mugabe government’s sincerity in meeting its obligations under the deal. These include payment for the release-of-ground agreement reached in 2006, the reduction of ground rental fees and mineral royalties, as well as the repayment of the vendor financing advanced by Implats.