The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared last Saturday’s senatorial rerun election for Kogi West inconclusive because the margin of win was less than the total cancelled votes.
INEC Returning Officer for the election, Prof Olayide Lawal said the candidate of the APC, Smart Adeyemi polled 80,118 votes while Dino Melaye of the PDP trails by 59,548.
He however said that votes were cancelled across 53 polling units in the senatorial district with 46,127 registered voters due to violence and snatching of ballot boxes.
He explained that the margin of win between Adeyemi and Dino was less than the number of cancelled votes, hence, no declaration could be made until a supplementary election is held in the affected polling units.
Lawal said that a date for supplementary election would be announced by the electoral umpire in due course. Meanwhile, Adeyemi is leading with 20,570 votes according to the results declared so far by INEC.
The election was characterised by heavy violence which led to the death of three persons in the polling unit of the PDP’s candidate including his nephew, Olajunwo and various monitoring bodies are calling for the cancellation of the entire process.
