• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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INEC restates commitment towards conducting free, fair supplementary election in Kano

INEC

Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC)`s office in Kano has affirmed its readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible governorship supplementary election on Saturday (March 23rd) in the state.

The commission said the supplementary election would determine the winner of Kano State governorship election, explaining that cases of violence and over-voting invoked the decision to cancel the votes in some polling units.

According to a statement signed and issued by the state Resident Electoral Commission(REC), Professor Riskuwa Shehu Arabu, and made available to BDSUNDAY in Kano, restated that the gubernatorial election held in the state was inconclusive, stressing that  the election did not produce a winner.

“The Commission wishes to reiterate its commitment to the conduct of free, fair and credible election in the state. It also wishes to inform the general public that the Supplementary Election would be conducted on Saturday 23rd March, 2019.” Riskuwa stated.

He explained that  the cancellation of results in some units located within some local government areas was  due to  violence and over-voting, which led to cancellations of results in 210 Polling Units which constitute 88 Registration Areas, adding that the affected Polling Units have a total number of 128, 572 registered voters.

The Kano REC, disclosed that the contenders with the highest votes are the candidates of the All Progressive Congress (APC) with 987, 819, while the candidate of the People`s Democratic Party (PDP) had 1, 014, 474 votes.

He said the People`s Democratic Party (PDP) is currently on a marginal lead with  26, 655,  Riskuwa also said: 128, 572 votes were cancelled.

According to him, the cancellation action by the commission is  in compliance with  Section 41 (e) of the Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of 2019 General Elections which provides as follows “Where the margin of lead between the two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling unit(s) where election was cancelled or not held in line with sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act, the returning officer shall decline to make a return until polls has taken place in the affected polling unit(s) and the results incorporated into new form EC 8D and subsequently recorded into form EC 8E for Declaration and Return.”

In his words,  “based on the above and looking at the marginal lead of 26, 655 between the two candidates with highest votes and the number of total votes cancelled which stands at 128, 572, a winner cannot be declared at this stage until a supplementary election is conducted in the affected polling units.”

 

Jacob Ajakaiye, Kano