1961 Kenyan general election
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General elections were held in Kenya in February 1961. The result was a victory for the Kenya African National Union, which won 19 of the 53 elected seats.
Electoral system
[edit]Twenty seats were reserved for minority communities; ten for whites, eight for Indians and two for Arabs. There were also twelve appointees.[1] Primary elections were held for the reserved seats by members of the respective communities, and candidates receiving at least 25% of the vote advanced to the main elections.[2]
Of the 1,411,117 registered voters, 29,879 (2.18%) were Indian, 19,332 (1.37%) white and 5,472 (0.38%) Arabs.[3]
Results
[edit]Nine constituencies (with a total of 353,251 registered voters) were uncontested, reducing the number of actual voters to 1,057,866.[3]
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kenya African National Union | 590,661 | 67.50 | 19 | |
Kenya African Democratic Union | 143,079 | 16.35 | 11 | |
Baluhya Political Union | 28,817 | 3.29 | 1 | |
New Kenya Party | 28,284 | 3.23 | 4 | |
Kenya Indian Congress | 10,488 | 1.20 | 3 | |
Kenya Coalition | 8,891 | 1.02 | 3 | |
Kenya Freedom Party | 5,263 | 0.60 | 2 | |
Kenya National Congress | 4,561 | 0.52 | 0 | |
Shungwaya Freedom Party | 3,748 | 0.43 | 1 | |
Coast People's Party | 1,693 | 0.19 | 0 | |
Tana River Pokomo Union | 699 | 0.08 | 0 | |
African independents | 13,917 | 1.59 | 1 | |
Arab independents | 5,712 | 0.65 | 2 | |
Asian Hindu independents | 4,648 | 0.53 | 0 | |
Asian Muslim independents | 11,880 | 1.36 | 3 | |
European independents | 12,768 | 1.46 | 3 | |
Appointed members | 12 | |||
Total | 875,109 | 100.00 | 65 | |
Valid votes | 875,109 | 98.91 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 9,678 | 1.09 | ||
Total votes | 884,787 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 1,057,866 | 83.64 | ||
Source: Sternberger et al. |
References
[edit]- ^ Elections in Kenya African Election Database
- ^ Robert M. Maxon & Thomas P. Ofcansky (2014) Historical Dictionary of Kenya, Rowman & Littlefield, p202
- ^ a b Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Erster Halbband, p972