Pic 21. From left: Chairperson Legal Services INEC, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu; INEC Chairman Prof Yakubu Mahmood and INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye during a news conference on the forthcoming Presidential and National Assembly Elections in Abuja on Tuesday (19/2/2019)
01506/19/02/2019/Callistus Ewelike/NAN
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says a governorship candidate may not be declared winner despite getting the highest number of votes in a state.
In a circular published on its website, which carries INEC’s “regulations and guidelines for the conduct of the 2019 elections,” the commission stated that for a governorship candidate to be declared winner, he/she must emerge winner in at least one-quarter of total votes cast in two-thirds of all the local government areas in the state.
On page 24 of the 33-page document, the electoral body states that the collation/returning officer for a state can only return as winner, any governorship candidate who “(i) has the majority of votes cast at the election; (and) (ii) has not less than one quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the LGAs in the state.”
It adds that “where no candidate meets the requirements of the majority of votes cast and the electoral two-thirds, as provided in 41b (i) and (ii) above, a run-off election will be organised by the commission within 21 days in line with the provisions of Section 179 (2) to (5) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.”
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Meanwhile, accreditation and voting have begun in some states in the ongoing governorship and houses of assembly elections.
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