The collation of results of the Anambra state governorship elections and the declaration of the winning candidate as been suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC’s Chief Returning Officer for the election, Professor Florence Obi, announced this early on Monday, November 8, at the commission’s head office in Awka.
People had waited until about 12:15am on Nov. 8 for the declaration of a winner but things took a turn as Professor Obi made the announcement.
Professor Florence Obi, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar in Cross River State, said: “We have collated results from 20 out of 21 local government areas.”
Rather than declaring the winner of the election after announcing the total votes scored by the participating parties, Professor Obi said a declaration would only be made after a supplementary election was conducted in Ihiala local government, which is the only local government in Anambra where elections did not hold.
She said: “The outstanding results are for Ihiala Local Government Area where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials yesterday (Saturday).
“Consequently, based on Constitutional considerations and provisions of the Electoral Act, as well as revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of election issued by the commission, a supplementary election is indicated for Ihiala Local Government Area.”
She said a supplementary election will be conducted in the 326 polling units across Ihiala on Tuesday, November 9.
Results were announced for all other LGAs with the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Charles Soludo, winning in 18 of the 20 LGAs where elections held.
Candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Valentine Ozigbo, and Young Progressives Party (YPP), Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, each won a local government.
But the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Andy Uba, did not win any local government in the election.
