Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed March 23 for supplementary election in the six states where the March 9 governorship elections were declared inconclusive.
The states are Benue, Sokoto, Plateau, Adamawa, Kano and Bauchi.
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, who disclosed this in a statement, yesterday night, however pointed out that having considered a report submitted by the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bauchi State, on the disruption of the collation at the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area (LGA) Collation Centre, which led to the cancellation of results for the entire local government, the Commission found that there were issues which needed further investigation and has set up a team, led by a National Commissioner, to resolve them.
Said Okoye: “The Commission met yesterday and reviewed the conduct of the 29 governorship and 991 state constituency elections held on March 9.
“In all, the Commission declared winners in the governorship elections in 22 states.
“However, the Returning Officers in Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto states declared the governorship elections inconclusive. Consequently. the Commission will conduct supplementary elections on Saturday, March 23; to conclude the process.
“Supplementary elections will also hold in polling units in all states where Assembly elections were declared inconclusive and winners could not be declared.
“Details of the constituencies, including number of polling units and registered voters, would be published on our website, today.
“The elections were declared inconclusive for a combination of reasons; mainly, discontinuation of use of the Smart Card Readers, midway into the elections or the failure to deploy them, over-voting and widespread disruption in many polling units.”