Opposition will garner 11 million votes in August polls Raila

Opposition leader, Raila Odinga, has said his team will garner nearly 11 million votes in the presidential race during the August 8 General Election.

Speaking in Gesima area of Nyamira County on Friday, January 20, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader said he arrived at the figure after adding number of votes likely to be cast in Opposition strongholds like Nyanza, Eastern, Western Kenya and Coast Province when Kenyans go to the ballot.

“After 30 days of the voter registration exercise, let us show President Uhuru Kenyatta that Raila is the one who enjoys tyranny of numbers. We have established that people in our strongholds who are eligible to vote outdo voters whose political support is inclined toward government,” said Odinga.

“In Nyanza alone, we will get 3.5 million votes, in Western Kenya we will garner 2.5 million votes. Votes from the two blocs are 6 million. In Ukambani, we will get nearly 3 million votes and 2 million votes in Coast Province. Just the four regions will give us 11 million votes. And we have not incorporated votes from the Maa, Samburu and Turkana blocs. When they all register as voters we will certainly send Jubilee packing.”

Nyamira County leaders including Governor John Nyagarama, MPs Timothy Bosire (Kitutu Masaba), James Gesami (West Mugirango) and Alice Chae (Nyamira Women Representative) assured Raila of their support in the race for President.

Ms Chae urged Nyamira residents to register as voters in large numbers so that they can vote for the Opposition candidate in the August 8 race to State House.

A new campaign by IEBC to register voters kicked off countrywide Monday, January 16 with the electoral body seeking to list six million new voters.

IEBC Chief Executive Officer, Ezra Chiloba, said his team seeks to add six million voters to the 15.9 million already registered.

Some 7,793 biometric voter registration kits will be used during the campaign to be executed at over 24,000 polling centres around the country.

The IEBC has hired over 21,421 staff for the campaign, including 290 registration officers, 290 assistant registration officers, 1,775 voter registration assistants, 2,900 ward-based voter educators, 580 ICT support assistants and 15,586 clerks.