Kenyans Vote in Test of Democracy

The NYT is reporting that millions of Kenyans waited in the muggy darkness for the polls to open and for a chance to scratch their Xs in an election that is predicted to be the tightest race in the country’s history — and the greatest test yet of Kenya’s young, multi-party democracy.

The contest pits the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, a man who has a reputation as a courtly gentleman, an economics whiz but also as a tribal politician, against Raila Odinga, a rich, flamboyant businessman who rides around in a bright red $100,000 Hummer and is running as a champion of the poor.

The polls were packed with young women carrying babies on their backs, students chatting on cell phones, wrinkled old men teetering on canes and muscled youth smelling like they just tumbled out of a bar. Security was tight. Truckloads of helmeted soldiers prowled the slums. Policemen swung canes beat to back throngs of voters trying to squeeze into polling booths. So many people were eager to vote. One woman outside a school in Nairobi even fainted.

“We want change!” yelled Abdi Mubarak, who works in a mosque and said he voted for Mr. Odinga.

Most polls in the past several months have forecast that Mr. Odinga would win the election, and the heavy turnout on Thursday was predicted to work his favor.

--> One candle is lit while another is snuffed out, I suppose.