On Sunday, the Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the Jalingo, Yorro, and Zing House of Representatives bye-elections inconclusive.
Prof. Daniel Ayuba, the election’s Returning Officer, made the announcement following the consolidation of results from the three local government councils that comprised the Jalingo constituency.
According to Ayuba, although the People’s Democratic Party PDP candidate, Alhaji Tafida Sadiq, received 17,214 votes, the Social Democratic Party SDP candidate, Mr Innocent Jabayang, received 15,537 votes, resulting in a 1,677 vote discrepancy between the two.
“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 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.