The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday declared the Jalingo, Yorro and Zing House of Representative bye-election inconclusive.
The Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Daniel Ayuba, disclosed this after the collation of results from the three local government councils that made up the constituency in Jalingo.
Ayuba said that while the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Tafida Sadiq, scored 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.
He said: “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 (Permanent Voter Cards) in the areas where the election is cancelled, the result cannot 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 the election did not hold, or cancelled, which is 14,759.
Consequently, the election is inconclusive, and a rerun would be held in the respective areas between the candidate with the highest votes and the first runner-up”.
Our correspondent reports that the election was held in the constituency on Saturday to fill the vacuum created by the death of Ismaila Maihanchi, who won the February 2023 general election, which occurred before the swearing-in of the 10th National Assembly.
