The Anambra governorship election has been declared inconclusive by INEC. Florence Obi, The State Returning Officer for the election, made the declaration in the early hours of Monday, around 12:20 a.m., said this was because there was no election in Ihiala Local Government Area which has over 148,000 registered voters.

INEC could not deploy voting materials to Ihiala during Saturday’s election because of the security threat, she said.
The former Governor of Central Bank and candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has secured majority of results declared in the votes cast in Saturday’s Anambra State Governorship election. Soludo was, however, not declared the winner of the election yet due to the suspension of election in Ihiala Local Government Area.

The APGA candidate won in 18 of the 20 local government areas of the state. One local government was won by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Valentine Ozigbo, while the candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Ifeanyi Ubah, also won in one local government.

Rather than declaring the winner of the election after announcing the total votes scored by the participating parties, Professor Obi said a declaration would only be made after a supplementary election was conducted in the remaining local government – Ihiala.

Professor Florence Obi said: “Based on constitutional consideration and provisions of the Electoral Act as well as the Revised Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections issued by the commission, supplementary election is indicated for Ihiala Local Government Area,”. She said the constitution provides for a candidate to secure both the highest number of votes cast and 25 per cent of votes cast in at least two-third of the local government areas of the state before he is declared winner. “Therefore, it is important to complete the election in Ihiala to make this determination,” she said
“Section 179 (3) of the Constitution provides that a rerun election shall take place if no candidate meets the requirement of sub-section 2. Such a run-off shall be between the candidate with the highest number of votes and one among the remaining candidates who secured a majority of votes in the highest number of local government areas in the state,” she added.

Results were announced for all other LGAs with the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Charles Soludo, winning in 18 of the 20 LGAs for which results were declared. Similarly, candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Valentine Ozigbo, and Young Progressives Party (YPP), Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, each won a local government. But the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Andy Uba, was unable to win any local government in the election.