The Kenyan shilling surged almost 1 percent against the dollar on Thursday as investors took comfort from official guarantees that Monday’s presidential election would deliver a credible result despite long delays, Business Daily reported late on Thursday.

The Business Daily reported that traders had said commercial banks were lowering long dollar positions after the reassurances from the electoral commission.

Reassurances were issued after technological hitches were experienced during the tallying of votes.

Ballot-counting from this week’s Kenyan presidential polls had been delayed a bit due to technical problems in what has been described as an “expensive, high-tech computerized system.”

HispanicBusiness.com reported that instead of trusting upon electronic transmission of data, electoral officials had undertaken to bring ballots physically from around the country to be counted at the main tallying centre in Nairobi.

The website reported that provisional results, with more than 40 per cent of votes counted, show Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta with about 53 percent of the vote, while his rival, Premier Raila Odinga, had about 42 percent.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has its fingers crossed, hoping that official results would come sooner.

It apologized for the glitches in the electronic system, which cost tens of millions of dollars.

According to Business Daily, trading in the Kenyan currency had been volatile since the elections began on Monday.

But the unit gained 0.8 percent to 85.90/86.10 early in Thursday’s session, winning back most of Wednesday’s losses,  when it was feared that lags in the announcement of the results could see candidates challenging the outcome of the vote, according to the Business Daily.

“Some people may be taking the view that the elections will be credible. Nobody has been radical so far and that has provided confidence for the shilling,” Business Daily quoted Duncan Kinuthia, head of trading at Commercial Bank of Africa, as saying.

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