Police Rescue Kenya Vote Boss From Results Chaos

Opposition leaders including presidential candidate Raila Odinga took the microphone after Kivuitu was forced to leave the results centre.

Paramilitary police swept in to escort Kenya's election board chairman out of the main results centre on Sunday after scuffles broke out and opposition politicians drowned him out with heckling, witnesses said.

Moments after Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) head Samuel Kivuitu began reading the latest results in the cliff-hanger vote, a man approached the podium shouting "Justice!" and "This is not a police state", then chaos ensued.

Opposition leaders including presidential candidate Raila Odinga took the microphone after Kivuitu was forced to leave the results centre.

"The doctoring of results has gone on right here," Odinga told hundreds of journalists and party agents packed into the room in a conference centre, surrounded by armed guards.

Earlier, scuffles and shouting had interrupted election officials when they resumed reporting vote tallies on Sunday.

Kivuitu called for order and tried to resume reading, but was repeatedly interrupted by opposition hecklers. Police squeezed their way into the packed hall to try to impose order and Kivuitu was led out.

On Saturday, latest results had President Mwai Kibaki holding a small lead over Odinga with nearly 90 percent of constituencies in.