INEC Suspends Declaration Of Anambra Governorship Election Result

Nigeria’s electoral ruling body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the suspension of the declaration of results for the 2021 Anambra governorship election which held on Saturday and Sunday. The commission’s Chief Returning Officer for the election Professor Florence Obi made public the decision in the early hours of Monday, November 8, 2021 at INEC’s head office in Awka, the capital of the State.

Electorates waited until about 12:15am (WAT) on Monday with hopes that they would know the outcome of the election, but things took a different turn as Professor Obi the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar made the announcement saying “we have collected results from 20 out of 21 local government areas.’’

The scholar instead of declaring the winner of the election said the public would only get the full result after conducting a supplementary election in Ihiala local government, the only part of the South-Eastern state where election did not hold.

 “The outstanding results are for Ihiala Local Government Area where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials yesterday (Saturday),’’ Obi said.

 “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.’’

Professor Obi went further to say that election will hold in the 326 polling units of Ihiala on Tuesday, November 9.

However, results of the other LGAs announced so far shows that the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance Charles Soludo who was former governor of Nigeria’s central bank, is leading the polls having won 18 out of the 20 LGAs. Mr Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) both won a local government each as Andy Uba of the All Progressive Congress (APC) did not win any so far.

Nigerians do not trust INEC as there are fears that if the final announcement does not declare Soludo winner, the State might witness political instability.

Source

LIB

Featured Image Source: Guardian NG