The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended the declaration of results in the Anambra State gubernatorial election.
The election’s Returning Officer, Florence Obi, announced this recently and said the decision to suspend the declaration was to give allowance for a supplementary election in the Ihiala local government area of the state.
The supplementary election will hold soon.
There are 148,407 registered voters in Ihiala local government area.
Obi cited relevant sections of the constitution and said the final collation of results could not be done until the 326 polling units in Ihiala LGA participate in the election.
She said: “Based on constitutional considerations and provisions of the Electoral Act as well as revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of election issued by the commission, a supplementary election is indicated for Ihiala local government area.
“Clause 47 of the revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections provides that supplementary election shall be conducted when the commission, due to logistical challenges is unable to deploy on election day.
“Given the foregoing, it becomes imperative to bring Ihiala local government area at par with the other 20 local government areas in this election before we can make a valid declaration or take any further action based on the extant law.
“Therefore, I, Prof. Florence Banku Obi, in my capacity as returning officer for this election, hereby announce the suspension of the process of collation of results and declaration of a winner until a supplementary election is held in the 326 polling units in Ihiala local government area of the state.”
