The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), has declared Saturday’s election in the Yobe South Senatorial district as inconclusive.
The senatorial election returning officer, Professor Shettima Abdulkadir Sa’idu, who made the declaration said the decision was taken following the cancellation of results in Polling Unit 003 Manawaci under Fika Local Government due to over voting.
Prof Sa’idu further explained that the total number of votes cast exceeded the number of accredited voters in the affected polling unit.
He also disclosed that the cancelled polling unit has 1,118 registered voters and the total number of accredited voters in the polling unit exceeded the total number of registered voters.
According to him, INEC will schedule the election between the two leading political parties- All Progressives Congress (APC) which scored 69,417 votes already, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which polled 68,800 votes so far.
“I want us to get it straight, the difference between the first and the second is 617. However, in the process of the election, we have had a total of 1,118 votes cancelled.
“If the difference is higher than the total cancelled, then we will declare the winner but where the cancelled is higher than the difference, can we declare the winner? This is where we found ourselves now”, Prof. Sa’idu stated.