Olayinde Lawal, Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the Kogi West Senatorial election inconclusive.
This is because the wide margin of votes polled by Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Dino Melaye of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is lower than the number of registered voters in the affected areas where election was cancelled, in a report from Premium Times.
Smart Adeyemi of the APC polled 80,118 votes while Dino Melaye polled 59,548 votes. The difference between the votes is 20,570, which is lower than the 43,127 registered voters in 52 polling units where elections were cancelled.
According to Olayinde, whenever this situation occurred, the Returning officer is bound by law to declare the election results inconclusive.
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Olayinde announced that a supplementary election will be conducted in the 52 polling units before the commission can declare a Winner. He said the date for the supplementary Election will be announced at a later date.
In the meantime, observer groups who were present at the elections have called for a total cancellation of the elections which were marred by violence.
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