By Christian George
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared the Ekiti governorship election inconclusive on Monday.
This was the aftermath of the disagreement between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
According to Punch, the Collation and Returning Officer of the election, Prof. Yusuf Sa’idu of the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, announced the position at the collation centre situated at INEC headquarters in Birnin Kebbi.
Prof. Sa’idu stated that the election was inconclusive in 20 out of the 21 local government areas of the state.
He said, “we aggregated the total number of collected PVCs in those polling units and it came to a total of 91,829.
“And when we checked the results, the two leading political parties in this contest, APC and PDP polled 388,258 and 342,980 votes respectively. When we look at the difference, it stands at 45,278.”
The Prof said the next option was to refer to electoral laws on page 31 of the Electoral Act 2022, section 51 sub-sections two and three for guidance.
According to the electoral law, “where the number of votes cast in an election in any polling unit exceeds the number of accredited voters in that polling unit, the presiding officer shall cancel the result of the election in that polling unit.
“Sub-section three of section 51 also states that where the result of an election is cancelled by subsection two, there shall be no return for the election until another poll has taken place in the affected polling unit,” thereby prompting the announcement of the election inconclusive.
