- INEC declares election inconclusive
- Supplementary election to hold in 20 polling units
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State inconclusive. Also the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday accused each other of complicity in stalling the election. Both parties accused INEC of bungling the election, while some civil society groups have called for its outright cancellation.
The Chief Returning Officer of the governorship election, Prof. James Epoke, who made the declaration after collating results from the 21 local governments, said he could not announce the overall winner because of irregularities in some parts of the state. Epoke, who is also the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, said the number of registered voters in the areas where election was cancelled was significant and more than the difference between the leading candidate and the closest rival.
Consequently, INEC said it will conduct a supplementary election for all the 23 parties and candidates that participated in the election. According to him, results collated so far showed that Chief Willie Obiano of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, scored 174,710 votes and is closely followed by Mr. Tony Nwoye of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with 94,956 with a difference of 79,754 votes. Epoke said the figure of registered voters whose votes were cancelled in the affected areas was 113,113.
He said that the supplementary election, which will take place in about 20 polling units spread across 10 local government areas where the votes were cancelled will be conducted in line with the enabling laws He said: "For us to have a winner, we must have a result where the difference between the two leading candidates will be more than the number of registered voters in those areas where election did not hold.
"The difference between APGA's 174,710 and PDP's 94,856 is 79,754 which is less than the votes in the areas where the election was cancelled. Because of this, we cannot return the winner in this election.
"The commission will arrange a date for, not a rerun, but a supplementary election in only those areas that election was cancelled.
"In that case we have this election as inconclusive because the total number of cancelled votes is more than the difference between the candidate with the highest number of votes and the runner up.
"We want to appeal to the political parties to allow the election to go on smoothly whenever it will hold and not disrupt the supplementary election as was done in this case," he said. In the result released so far, the local government areas won by APGA are Aguata, Orumba North, Orumba South, Onitsha North, Onitsha south, Ihiala, Ayamelum, Nnewi South, Njikoka, Ogbaru, Ekwusigo, Awka North, Awka South, Anambra East and Anambra West.
The PDP won in Dunukofia and Oyi local governments to place second with a total of 94,956 votes. The All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Dr Emeka Ngige won Idemili North and Idemili South with a total of 92,300 votes to place third. The Labour Party candidate, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba, came fourth with 37,446 votes and Progressives Peoples Alliance fifth with 5,056 votes.
According to INEC, the total number of registered voters in the state is 1,763,751; the number of accredited voters was 451,825; the number of votes cast were 429,549 while valid votes were 413,005 with 16,544 rejected.
Epoke said that Idemili North had the highest number of cancelled votes with 89,997 from six wards or 160 polling units and other areas affected included Omor and Ayamelum, while in Aguluzigbo, Anocha Local Government Area, a ballot box was snatched. The other areas involved in the supplementary election include parts of Onitsha South, Ihiala, Ayamelum, Oyi, Orumba North, Aguata, Idemili South and Awka North.
Already, the three key candidates, Senator Chris Ngige of APC, Comrade Tony Nwoye of PDP and Ifeanyi Ubah of Labour Party, who took part in the main election on Saturday, have pulled out of the scheduled supplementary election, sequel to their joint request for cancellation of the entire exercise during a press briefing in Awka on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the APC has rejected the announcement by INEC that it will hold a supplementary election after declaring last Saturday's governorship poll in Anambra inconclusive, insisting that only the total cancellation of the "grossly-tainted and widely-manipulated" election will be acceptable.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also called on INEC to come clear on how the election was sabotaged from within the electoral commission itself, with a view to establishing how entrenched the forces of evil within the commission are and also to avert a looming national disaster into which an infiltrated, incompetent and conniving INEC can plunge Nigeria.
APC said it is now apparent that INEC is indeed not taking seriously the opinions of Anambra residents as well as local and foreign observers that most of the registered voters in the state were wilfully disenfranchised on Saturday.
"First, the electoral commission proposed make-up election in only 65 polling units in Obosi before scaling things up to a supplementary election 'in those areas where election was cancelled'. But we say, without equivocating, that a total cancellation of the election and the organisation of a fresh poll, under the supervision of a credible Resident Electoral Commissioner, will be acceptable to our party," it said.
The party also challenged INEC to quickly carry out an internal investigation to determine the extent to which Saturday's election was sabotaged and compromised to the embarrassment of the nation, saying what occurred on Saturday may actually be treasonable.
"It is not enough for INEC's detached Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to tell the nation that an INEC official sabotaged the election in a certain part of the state, he must tell the nation who this fellow is, who he/she is working for, what is the extent of the damage he/she has done to this and previous elections, and whether or not he/she has access to the commission's database of voters' register, which was apparently tampered with for Saturday's election.
"Prof. Jega must also tell Nigerians why 16 Electoral Commissioners, who migrated to Anambra days before the election ostensibly to supervise things, could not ensure the success of an election in a single state, when even a polling unit behind the INEC office in Awka did not get voting materials till after 9a.m. on election day," it said.
The APC accused the PDP of being an accessory to the electoral malfeasance in Anambra last Saturday, going by the statement credited to the party that the election was free and fair.
"In its inordinate ambition to humiliate our party at all costs, the PDP has ended up humiliating itself and embarrassing the nation. Or how else does one describe a bizarre situation in which a party will described as free and fair an election in which its own candidate and his family could not find their names in the voters' register? The joke is indeed on the PDP!
"It is now clear who the PDP is working for, and that the party has no qualms about sacrificing its own candidate and disgracing the nation as long as it will achieve its aim of humiliating the APC," the party said. Also, the Campaign for Democracy, CD, yesterday called for the outright cancellation of polls in eight local government areas of the state due to irregularities and poor performance of INEC.
The eight council areas, according to a press statement signed by the South- East zonal Chairman of CD, Dede Uzor are: Idemili North, Idemili South, Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Anambra East, Anambra West, Awka North and Awka South. CD stated: "We are calling for the outright cancellation of the charade called election where electoral materials were not provided or voting hampered due to timing and logistic challenges."
Also, the Women Arise for Change Initiative, WACI, an accredited INEC observer strongly condemned what it termed as criminal disposition and an open day disenfranchisement and electoral robbery meted out against the defenceless and prospective voters from Idemili North and Idemili South local government areas during the election. WACI therefore called for the outright cancellation of the election, not only in Idemili, but in some areas in Nnewi where electoral materials were not supplied.
They also called for immediate arrest and public trial of Chukwuemeka Onukogu, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for his electoral crimes against the electorate. But PDP has said that the electoral fraud witnessed in the governorship contest was orchestrated by the APC with the corroboration of INEC.
The PDP also said that while peace prevailed during the entire duration of polls in the state, the leadership of APC injected crisis when it became obvious that the electorate was not supportive of its candidate, Chris Ngige.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja after its National Working Committee, NWC, meeting, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh ,said that what transpired in Anambra was a replay of the senatorial contest between Ngige and Prof. Dora Akunyili (APGA) where Ngige contrived a crisis to halt the election to his own advantage.
He said that PDP never wanted a cancellation of the polls but for the insistence of the officials of APC, who mobilised their members to frustrate INEC from carrying out their duties. Metuh also accused APC of flouting the laws on campaign funding and for attempting to induce INEC officials and where it failed, resorted to violence.
He said: "We saw on television how they had arranged massive fund raising and how their governors donated hugely for their candidate but we did not know the fund was also meant for funding the importation of thugs. "And when their money could not buy electoral officials as was the case in Idemili, they resorted to fomenting crisis. APC worked hard to get the election postponed.
It was APC officials that stopped INEC officials from carrying out their work and INEC acceded to their request. "We also witnessed the manipulation of the media by the APC leaders who rented some women, about 30 of them claiming that they are Anambra women.
We also witnessed the deployment of some Imo State government officials during the exercise. The whole essence was to create a sense of hopelessness. Nigerians must ignore them." The PDP spokesman also called on the opposition to learn how to appraise election fallout and not be quick to denounce outcomes.