NAIROBI: Long lines of Kenyans queued from long before dawn to vote on Monday in the first election since violence-wracked polls five years ago, with a deadly police ambush marring the key ballot.

The tense elections — and the all-important reception of the results — are seen as a crucial test for Kenya, with leaders vowing to avoid a repeat of the bloody 2007-8 post-poll violence in which over 1,100 people were killed.

Observers have repeatedly warned of the risk of renewed conflict, but the conduct of voting itself passed off peacefully with no major reported violent incidents.

Voters standing for hours in snaking lines several hundred metres (yards) long — and several people thick — crowded peacefully outside polling stations to take part in one of the most complex elections Kenya has ever held.

Early partial preliminary results showed the two frontrunners Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga with a clear lead.

Figures released just after 7:30 pm (1630 GMT) and based on some 5 per cent of ballots cast showed Kenyatta with 400,174 votes and Odinga with 272,519.

Given that a total of 14.3 million Kenyans were registered to vote, analysts say no conclusions on nationwide trends can be drawn from the early figures.

Tensions were high on Monday on the coast, including in the port city of Mombasa where six policemen were killed in two separate attacks, including an ambush by some 200 youths armed with guns and bows and arrows, hours before the opening of polling stations.

People began lining up from as early as 4:00 am (0100 GMT) to cast their votes. Polls officially closed at 5.00 pm (1400 GMT), although centres whose opening had been delayed — some for several hours — were to stay open to make up for the time missed.

Ahmed Issack Hassan, IEBC chairman, said there had been “challenges” faced in various parts of the country, but that any failure of electronic systems meant only that checking identification had to be done manually.

POLLS HELD PEACEFULLY: Neck-and-neck rivals for the presidency, Prime Minister Odinga and his deputy Kenyatta, have publicly vowed there will be no repeat of the bloodshed that followed the disputed 2007 polls.—AFP