NAIROBI—Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga called on Sunday for the government to concede defeat or allow a recount in a presidential election, saying fraud had stripped his rival's administration of legitimacy.
"We do not want to plunge this country into chaos," he said.
President Mwai Kibaki's party called Odinga's accusations a "crime" against democracy, but said a recount would be fine because it would expose "massive rigging" by the opposition.
Odinga also appealed for calm in his first public comments since claims of vote-tampering sparked tribal clashes, hurting Kenya's reputation for relative stability in a volatile region.
Odinga said his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) won almost three times as many parliamentary seats as Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) in Thursday's polls.
"There cannot be a more severe indictment by the people of a sitting government," Odinga said, referring to a clutch of cabinet ministers who were ousted at the ballot box.
"This government has lost all legitimacy and cannot govern," he said. "I wish to appeal to President Mwai Kibaki to acknowledge and respect the will of the people of Kenya and honourably concede defeat."
PNU said it had won, and a recount would prove it. "We would still win — by a bigger margin," a spokesman said.
The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) was scheduled to announce final results of the hard-fought election on Sunday.
Around the country, unrest simmered after widespread ethnic riots that killed several people on Saturday.
Police fired in the air to disperse small groups of youths in Kisumu, witnesses said, as they tried to head off a second day of looting and arson in the western opposition stronghold.
Latest results released on Saturday showed Kibaki, 76, taking the lead, infuriating supporters of Odinga, who led in earlier tallies and most pre-election opinion polls.
Waiting for an ECK announcement at a conference centre ringed by armed guards, opposition officials huddled together while Kibaki's men laughed as they waited.
Speculation among foreign diplomats and Kenyan media was rife Kibaki might opt to be sworn in as early as Sunday afternoon, if he wins — but State House denied that.
"We are in very little doubt there has been rigging," said one election observer on condition of anonymity. "If Kibaki wins, they will want to move quickly. They will want to be in government straightaway to deal with any violence."
"Massive Question-Mark"
Tension was palpable in the Nairobi conference centre where a day earlier Odinga allies had heckled the head of the electoral commission as he tried to read out figures giving Kibaki a lead of some 120,000 votes.
An earlier official tally gave Odinga a 38,000 vote lead.
"There is a massive question mark over the tally of votes," chief EU observer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told Reuters.
"Our observers have been sent away from tallying centres without being given results. In Mombasa, none of the results were being displayed at the tallying centres."
He also said there was concern over voter turnout figures in some areas, including Kibaki's Central Province where two polling stations recorded a 98-99 percent showing, and Odinga's Nyanza homeland.
The chaotic vote count has cast a shadow over Thursday's elections that were initially praised by foreign observers and billed by some as a model for the continent.
Both sides traded accusations of multiple voting in their respective strongholds. And in more than a dozen cases, ECK returning officers appeared to have vanished with paperwork.
Kivuitu admitted there had been some problems including a reported 115 percent voter turnout in one constituency.
Odinga supporters set fire to a car in a Nairobi suburb on Sunday as envoys, foreign monitors and local media urged calm.
Former colonial power Britain said it was disturbed by the violence, while Washington asked candidates to accept the electoral commission's final result. "This is a pivotal moment for Kenya," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
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