By Uhuru Samuel Adaji Jalingo
The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has declared the by-election for Jalingo/Yorro/Zing Federal Constituency held on Saturday inconclusive.
The returning officer for the election Professor Daniel Ayuba of The Federal University Wukari while declaring the election inconclusive noted that the total number of collected PVCs in areas where election was cancelled out number the margin of victory.
Ayuba said that while the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party PDP Tafida Sadiq scored a total of 17,214 votes, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party SDP Mr Innocent Jabayang, who came in as the first runner up scored 15,537, putting the difference between the duo at 1,677.
“In the current electoral Act, there is a principle which stipulates that, if the margin of victory is less than the total number of collected PVCs in the areas where election is cancelled, the result can not be declared and anyone declared returned.
“From the computation that we have done and the results available to us, the margin of victory is less than the total number of collected PVCs in the areas where election did not hold, or cancelled. Consequently, the election is inconclusive and a rerun would be held in the respective areas only between the candidate with the highest votes and the first runner-up”.
Our Correspondent reports that election was held on Saturday for Jalingo/Yorro/Zing Federal Constituency to fill the vacuum created by the death of Ismaila Maihanchi who won the February 2023 general election for the constituency but died before the swearing in of the Tenth National Assembly.
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