By Ajibade Morakinyo
After declaring elections of six states- Bauchi, Kano, Sokoto, Plateau, Benue, and Adamawa ‘inconclusive’, citizens and residents of these states are back at polls today to elect their Governors and House of Assembly elections.
The supplementary election were ordered for a number of combination of reasons by the Independent Natonal Electoral Commission but this decision has no doubt triggered a controversial debate in the polity because the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party recorded higher number of votes in five of the six states, while the ruling party, All Progressive Congress leads in one state.
However, it would be recalled that ills like discontinuation of use of the Smart Card Readers midway into the elections or the failure to deploy them, over-voting, and widespread disruption in many polling units, made the election vulnerable to the ‘inconclusive’ syndrome.
Although the move to conduct a supplementary election was never out of the dictates of the law. Since the “Margin of Lead Principle” stated in Sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act and paragraph 41(e) and 43(b) of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines, stated that the commission cannot declare a winner if the number of cancelled votes can mathematically affect the outcome of the election.
Hence, no winner can be declared if upon final collation, the margin of victory between two parties with the highest numbers of votes is less that than number kf cancelled votes abdand thus the need for the reruun
BAUCHI STATE
In Bauchi State, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Bauchi state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) stated that the supplementary poll will hold in 36 polling units spread across 29 wards in 15 Local Government Areas of the state because the margin of lead between the two candidates is 4, 059 votes.
He however said election would not hold in Tafawa Balewa local government – one of the three Local Government Areas Speaker Yakubu Dogara represents in the House of Representatives, which has 139, 240 registered voters, pending the decision of the Court.
KANO STATE
In Kano state, elections will be conducted across 28 affected local government areas, which have 75 Registration Centres, 207 polling units and 279 voting points with the total number of 128,324 registered voters.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Riskuwa Arab-Shehu, disclosed that the governorship election was cancelled across 15 LGAs due to violence and 116 polling units were affected, adding that in these affected areas, the total number of voters is 73,173.
SOKOTO STATE
In Sokoto state, election will take place in 22 Local Government Areas across 136 polling units, respectively.
Professor Fatima Muktar, the INEC Returning Officer, said the number of cancelled votes exceeded the margin between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congressives (APC), which is 3,413 votes.
Meanwhile, PDP’s Aminu Tambuwal is currently leading in the race for re-election, polling, 489,558 votes, while the APC polled 486,090 votes.
Additionally, the number of rejected votes is 30,082, while the total votes cast is 1,018,024.
PLATEAU STATE
In Plateau state, election will be held in 14 local government areas, out of the 17 in the state. These include Jos East, Jos North, Jos South, Kanam, Langtang North, Langtang South, Mangu, Panshin, Kanke, Mikang, Quanpan, Riyom, Shendam, and Wase.
The returning electoral officer, Richard Kimbir, said the reasons why results in some polling units were cancelled were due to over-voting, manual voting, and violence.
BENUE STATE
In Benue State, the election was declared inconclusive because the total number of accredited voters in areas where election was not held, was more than the margin of lead.
State Returning Officer for the Benue state governorship election, Prof. Sebastien Maimako, revealed that the 81,554 margin of lead and the total number of cancelled votes which stood at 121,019, the election could not be declared as conclusive.
Prof. Maimako said: “By the first maximum votes of 410,576 scored by PDP and the second maximum votes of 329,022 scored by APC, 81,554 is the margin of lead. Therefore, the total number of rejected votes in the areas where election was not held is above the margin of lead which is 121,019.
ADAMAWA STATE
In Adamawa state, INEC declared the Adamawa governorship race inconclusive because the lead margin was lower than the total number of votes cancelled in certain areas.
However, a High Court in Adamawa on Thursday ordered the indefinite postponement of the governorship election in the state. This came after an ex parte motion filed by the Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD) that claimed that its logo was excluded from the ballot paper for the March 9 election.
The judge, Abdul-azeez Waziri, said the polls should be put on hold until he rules on an application for an interlocutory injunction barring INEC from conducting the polls.
The judge then adjourned the matter to Tuesday to give the ruling.
Obviously, the contest is usually between the top two candidates which in these states are between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but all the candidates involved in the elections are still legible to participate in the supplementary elections, and not just the top two as it would happens in a runoff election.
For sure the die is cast and whatever happens, winners must surely emerge.
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