The results of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections held yesterday, Saturday have shown that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has won the chairmanship position in four out of the six Area Councils, even as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the elections in the remaining two Councils inconclusive.
The results brought into the INEC’s collation centre at Area 3 Primary School and which the APC won are those of Abaji, Kwali, Gwagwalada and Bwari while that of Kuje and the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) were declared inconclusive.
Detailed of the results as at 9 p.m. today, Sunday showed that the APC won in Abaji with 9,840 votes as against the PDP’s 8,799; Kwali, APC 14,645, PDP’s 13,610, and Gwagwalada APC 25,476 and PDP 20,475. APC in Bwari polled 18,066 votes to defeat PDP which polled 13,279 votes
The Returning Officer for the election in Kuje, Nicholas Belikatu, who declared the exercise inconclusive, said none of the three candidates leading in the contest met the criteria to be declared winner.
According to Belikatu, a party must win with a simple majority of the votes cast, must score two-third spread across the 10 wards and number of cancelled votes should not exceed the difference between winner’s votes and runner-up’s.
He said: “The election results did not meet the three INEC criteria in some polling units.
“Therefore the results sheets and other materials will be moved to the INEC office at Area 10 for review, but the chairmanship election remains inconclusive.”
Belikatu had announced that the All Progressives Congress candidate scored 13,549 votes, with the Peoples Democratic Party scoring 11,478 votes and the All Progressives Grand Alliance polling 5,516 votes.
Agents of political parties that contested the elections, in their reactions, told the News Agency of Nigeria that they had no problem with the outcome of the exercise.
They, however, warned that INEC must ensure that elections would be repeated in the affected polling units.
In Karu, headquarters of AMAC, the Returning Officer, Prof. Sunday Ododo, said the 15,560 cancelled votes were more than the margin between the two leading political parties in the contest.
According to Ododo, while Abdullahi Halilu of the APC scored 26,602 votes, Bitrus Tanko of the PDP polled 21,230 votes, giving a margin of 5,372 votes.
He added: “However for a winner to emerge, the margin should be in excess of the number of votes cancelled.
“If you compare the margin between the winning party and the runner-up party, it is lower than the number of voters who could not cast their vote.
“For this reason, the AMAC chairmanship election is hereby declared inconclusive until election is conducted in affected pulling units.”
Ododo, from the University of Maiduguri, said the election was cancelled in 14 polling units, covering six registration areas and affected 15,360 registered voters.
The breakdown of the polling units affected, according to him, are one polling unit in Garki with 2,343 registered voters; Gwarinpa, three units with 1,675 registered voters; and one polling unit in Gui, with 2,628 registered voters.
Others, he said, were three polling units in Karishi, with 653 registered voters; four units in Karu, with 8,044 registered voters; and 17 units in Yanyan with 17 registered voters.
Breakdown of votes scored by the parties is Accord Party, 44; AA,14; ACD, 117; APC, 26,602; APGA, 812; CPP, 29.
Others are DPC, 19 votes; DPP, 33; NPPP, 80; PDP, 21,230; PPA, 191; DDP, 38; and UPP, 21 votes.
The APC agent for the election, Sani Bawa, expressed satisfaction with the election process, adding that the party was ready for the re-run. [myad]
