INEC has ordered a supplementary election in Ihiala LGA because the margin between the leading candidates is lower than votes canceled in Ihiala LGA.
By Kehinde Okeowo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has ordered a supplementary election in the Anambra governorship election.
INEC ordered the supplementary election because the margin between the two leading candidates, Soludo and Ozigbo, which stands at 52,624 is lower than the 148,407 votes that were canceled in Ihiala LGA.
Ahmadu Umar, the collation officer for Ihiala LGA, had earlier reported that there was no election in the Local government.
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The returning officer Prof Florence Obi, VC of the University of Calabar, said the decision to suspend the collation of results was because the outstanding votes can affect the outcome of the election.
She, therefore, fixed the supplementary election in Ihiala LGA, for tomorrow Tuesday, November 9, 2021.
Results from the remaining 20 LGAs, as announced by INEC on Sunday, showed that the APGA candidate, Soludo, is leading with 103,946 votes, he was followed by Ozigbo of the PDP, who got 51,322 votes, while APC’s candidate, Uba had 42,942
Prof Florence Obi, while declaring the election inconclusive, cited relevant electoral laws to back her decision, as she said, the final collation of results cannot be done until the uncounted votes from Ihiala LGA are added to the results of the 20 LGAs so far declared.
“The outstanding result is for Ihiala LGA, where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials yesterday. 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 n, the supplementary election is indicated for Ihiala local government area,” she said.
“First, section 179(2) of the constitution provides for a candidate to secure both the highest number of votes cast and 25 percent of the votes cast in at least two-third of the LGAs in the state to be declared the winner of the governorship election. Therefore, it is important to complete the election in Ihiala LGA to make this determination.
“Also, section 179(3) of tConstitutionion provides that a runoff election shall take place if no candidate meets the requirement of subsection 2 of the section. Such a runoff shall be between the candidate with the highest number of votes and one among the remaining candidates who secured a majority of votes in the highest number of LGAs in the state. This further underscores the importance of conductielectionsion in Ihiala LGA so that we shall cover all the LGAs to make the declaration.
“Secondly, section 26 of the Electoral Act envisages the postponement of an election where there is a cogent and verifiable reason to do so, especially threat of breach of the team. One major reason for not deploying for election in Ihiala on Saturday, 6th November, is due to security threats which led to staffing and transportation constraints, among others.
“Finally, clause 47 of the revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections provides that supplementary election shall be conducted when the commission, due to logistical challenges, is unable to deploy on election day.
“Given the foregoing, it becomes imperative to bring Ihiala LGA at par with the other 20 LGAs in this election before we can make a valid declaration or take any further action based on the extant law.
“Therefore, I, professor Florence Banku Obi, in my capacity as returning officer for this election, hereby announce the suspension of the process of collation of results and declaration of a winner until a supplementary election is held in the 326 polling units in Ihiala LGA of the state,” she said.
Supporters of various political parties have taken to their social media platforms to express mixed feelings about the ordering of the complementary election in Anambra state, while some felt it was justified, others opined it could give room for rigging.
