The European Union's election observer mission to Kenya ditched its preliminary assessment of Thursday's elections after violence erupted across the country Saturday in response to delays over the release of presidential results, according to dpa. In a joint press conference with two other monitoring missions, the EU's chief observer condemned the clashes that have gripped slums of Nairobi and other cities and called for peace. "The time has not come to make a preliminary judgement because things are so much in flux we were advised to hold back with it," said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, member of the European parliament from Germany. "We call on the people of Kenya at this critical time to maintain the spirit of peace and democracy shown Thursday," he said. Lambsdorff praised Thursday's polls, which saw a strong turnout in nail-biting elections that have pit Mwai Kibaki against Raila Odinga and could see Kibaki, the incumbent, unseated - a rare occurrence on a continent where many leaders will do anything to stay in power. But the opposition Orange Democratic Movement and its supporters have denounced the delay in declaring the presidential results and have charged that the polls have been rigged. "Delays are leading to distrust and suspicion," Lambsdorff said, as ethnic tensions mounted in Nairobi, with machete-wielding opposing supporters fighting, looting and burning houses. "But the Electoral Commission of Kenya will proceed to announce the results when the conditions are in place," he added. Lambsdorff said the EU team had no concrete evidence of rigging but there were "question marks" that would be investigated. The EU, which has 150 observers in town for the elections, has called the polls in the East African nation "high priority": Kenya's relative stability makes it a beacon of hope in a troubled region. "We appeal to leaders to regard the elections as a friendly competition. It is not a war," said Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the head of the Commonwealth observer mission and the former president of Sierra Leone, which endured a brutal 11-year civil war.
