Kenya and 2 Other Countries Which Have Nullified Presidential Election

The Supreme Court of Kenya on Friday made a historic ruling nullifying last month’s presidential election in which President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner.

The determination placed Kenya as the first country in Africa and the third in the world to declare the results of a presidential poll null and void.

The only other two nations that have done the same are Ukraine and Austria.

Austria’s is most recent, where the court made its decision in May 2016.

Alexander Van De Bellen had been declared the winner of the election that pitted him against far-right candidate Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party.

Hofer moved to the Constitutional Court to challenge the win and the results were nullified due to massive vote-counting irregularities.

In a repeat election held in December 2016, Van De Bellen trounced Hofer again, garnering 53.8% of the vote.

Ukraine was the first country to annul the presidential election in a judgement issued in 2004.

The former Soviet Union nation has a two-round system to elect its President and after the second round in November, Russia-backed Victor Yushchenko was declared the winner by the Central Election Commission.

Observers claimed they had witnessed widespread irregularities after which Victor Yanukovych, the loser, took his case to the Judiciary.

The court agreed with him and ordered for a rerun which was conducted on December 26, 2004.

In the repeat exercise, Yushchenko was once again declared the winner garnering 52% of the vote with observers noting the process was fairer than the original one.