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An early exit poll yesterday gave Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki a narrow lead in national elections, praised by observers as a smooth exercise despite delays, sporadic violence and rigging charges from both sides.
The Institute for Education in Democracy, a respected non-governmental organisation, gave Kibaki 51.3 per cent versus 39.6 for opposition leader Raila Odinga - but the figures were based on 273 polling stations out of a total 27,000.
Kibaki's Party of National Unity believes a sound economic record will earn him a second term.
But an aide for Odinga, who led pre-vote opinion polls, dismissed the IED: "People, especially in rural areas, are not keen to say how they have voted because they fear the power of the state," he said.
- REUTERS
