Local Govt APC PDP
- Ekeremor 7,918 14,604
- Ogbia 9,106 13,051
- Nembe 6,974 10,768
- TOTAL 72,594 105,748
Another electoral logjam surfaced yesterday —courtesy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which failed to conclude a governorship election, declaring Saturday’s election in Bayelsa State inconclusive.
These is the second governorship election so far held under the chairmanship of Prof. Mahmud Yakubu as INEC chairman.
INEC cancelled the rescheduled poll in Southern Ijaw Local Government Council, one of the eight local governments in the state.
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Baritor Kpagir said the cancellation was endorsed by the national headquarters.
Kpagir said the election was cancelled, following reports that the poll in Southern Ijaw was substantially marred by violence, ballot box snatching, intimidation and other irregularities.
The REC, at the state collation centre located inside the multipurpose hall of the secretariat of Yenagoa Local Government, noted that in the interest of international compliance with best practice, the cancellation of the election became necessary.
Kpagir indicated that a new date for the election would be chosen and communicated to all the stakeholders.
The Chief Retuning Officer, Prof. Zena Akpogu, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar in Cross River State, maintained that he could not declare any of the candidates the winner of the poll, without the results from Southern Ijaw Local Government.
The mainly-riverine Southern Ijaw is the biggest council in the state. It has over 120,000 voting strength, which would decide the eventual winner of the election between Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) Seriake Dickson and the All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) Chief Timipre Sylva.
The poll in Southern Ijaw council was rescheduled for Sunday also as a result of violence and killings.
In the collated results from the seven local governments as announced by the Returning Officer, the PDP leads with 33,154 votes. The PDP polled 105,748 votes as against APC’s 72,594 votes.
Prior to the cancellation of the election in Southern Ijaw, some PDP women and youths, who wore black dresses and led by the party’s Bayelsa Women Leader Faith Opuene, protested near the collation centre, expressing displeasure over the poll in Southern Ijaw.
Barely 30 minutes after the protest, despite the police ban on demonstrations, some militants from Southern Ijaw escorted two Hilux vans, one of them with Bayelsa Government House registration number: BYGH145, into the collation centre.
The two vehicles were loaded with uncounted ballot materials, without any security escort or INEC official.
The militants, who were singing war songs, as they alighted from the Hilux vans, claimed that they escaped from Southern Ijaw with the results of three units of Amassoma in the council area, in view of the violence, but the electoral materials were not accepted by the INEC officials at the collation centre.
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