The Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) has cancelled the scheduled supplementary election
in Bauchi state.
Bauchi was among the six states
that the commission fixed supplementary poll for March 23, following the
disruption of the collation of the March 9 governorship and state assembly
elections.
But in a statement, the commission
said it decided not to go ahead with another election in line with the
recommendation of a committee it set up
to investigate issues with the election.
The commission said the collation
process in the state will resume on Tuesday.
Festus Okoye, chairman, INEC
information and voter education committee, said the committee found out that
results of March 9 elections in Tafawa Balewa local government area, where
suspected thugs disrupted the process, were still intact.
“The governorship and state
assembly elections were held on the 9th March 2019 in Tafawa Balewa local
government area and the votes scored by candidates were announced at the
polling units and collated at the 11 registration areas of the local
government,” he said.
“Halfway into the local
government collation, armed gangs attacked the collation centre and destroyed
the local government result sheet (EC8C) and some collated results from the
Registration Areas. The results of 7 out of 11 Registration Areas for
Governorship and 6 out of 11 for State Assembly elections were affected.
“INEC guidelines provide that
where violent disruption affects collation in this manner, results should be
regenerated from duplicate copies on a replacement result sheet. The Collation
Officer, under pressure from Party Agents who could not wait for the arrival of
a replacement result sheet, decided to collate the result on an available RA
result sheet instead of the replacement LGA result sheet. When the result was
presented at the State Governorship Collation Centre, the Returning Officer
rejected the regenerated result because it was on a wrong result sheet.
“The Investigation Committee
established that the result in Polling Units and Registration Areas are
available and in safe custody.
“The Investigation Committee also
established that the number of cancelled votes for the 4 Polling Units in Ningi
Local Government Area which was recorded as 25,330 in form EC40G (1) was
incorrect. The actual figure is 2,533.
“Consequently, the Commission has
taken the following decisions: approved the resumption and conclusion of the
collation of results of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area in relation to the
Governorship election as the duplicate and original Registration Area results
are available. Approved the resumption, conclusion and announcement of the
result of the Tafawa Balewa State Constituency.
“The Collation process for Tafawa
Balewa Local Government will resume on Tuesday, 19th March 2019.”
He also said contrary to the
record that the number of cancelled votes in four units in Ningi LGA stood at
25,330, it was discovered the actual number of votes cancelled was 2,533.
He also announced the appointment
of a new collation/returning officer for Tafawa Balewa to conclude the process
after the former person in charge “withdrew from the exercise citing threats to
her life and those of her family members.”
Bala Mohammed, candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was leading as of the time the exercise was
declared inconclusive.
He had polled 469,512 votes ahead
of Mohammed Abubakar, his All
Progressives Congress (APC) rival who scored 465,453 votes.
Abubakar is the incumbent
governor of the state.
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