Inconclusive Anambra poll: INEC begins supplementary election in Ihiala LGA today
By Uthman Salami
The Independent National Electoral Commision has announced that the schedule supplementary elections for Anambra State Guber poll, to determine who will rule the state in the next four years, will commence today.
The electoral umpire revealed that supplementary elections would take place between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, announced this via a statement issued on Monday.
According to his statement, the Commission made a slight adjustment to the commencement and closing time for the said election in line with extant rules and regulations.
While explaining the reason for the change, Okoye maintained that this followed the suspension of collation of results in respect of governorship election as announced earlier by the State Collation/Returning Officer and the decision of the Commission to hold an election in Ihiala Local Government Area on Tuesday.
His words, “This decision, which will be strictly complied with, has been taken following a careful review of the prevailing situation in Anambra state and is being widely shared with the stakeholders including security agencies.”
The Commision however, “urge political parties, voters, election duty officials, election observers, the media and the general public to note this slight modification. We also appeal to citizens to conduct themselves in an orderly manner to ensure that the election is brought to a peaceful conclusion.”
Recall that the Returning Officer of the Anambra State governorship election, Professor Florence Obi, had said that a supplementary election will hold in 362 polling units in Ihiala Local Government Area on Tuesday, November 9.
She said election had to take place in those polling units for the election to be conclusive.
She noted that election did not take place in Ihiala because there were reports of insecurity in the area.
According to her, it became imperative to bring Ihiala at par with other local government areas to make a declaration of the result.
She stressed that, “As the Electoral Officer, I hereby announce the suspension of results until elections are held in all the polling units in Ihiala.
“Supplementary election will take place in the area on Nov. 9.”
Nigerian NewsDirect had earlier reported that Soludo won in 18 out of the 20 local government areas of the State already declared. But for the fate of election in Ihiala, Obi suspended the collation of results for the Anambra State governorship election on Monday.
She said, “We have collated results from 20 out of 21 local government areas.”
She, however, insisted that, “The outstanding results are for Ihiala Local Government Area where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials on 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 announced that a supplementary election would be conducted in the 326 polling units across Ihiala on Tuesday, November 9.
Ihiala remains the only one of Anambra’s 21 LGAs where elections could not hold.
“Clause 47 of the Revised Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of elections provides that supplementary elections shall be conducted where the commission due to logistic challenges is unable to deploy on Election Day,” Professor Obi said.
“Given the foregoing, it becomes imperative to bring Ihiala Local Government Area at par with the other 20 local government areas in this election before we can make a valid declaration in this election or take any further action based on the extant laws.
“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 Local Government Area of the state.
“I have conferred with the commission, being the body that fixes the date for the election, and the commission has decided that the supplementary election will take place on Tuesday.”
