INEC fixes Nov 30 for Kogi west supplementary poll

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed November 30 for the supplementary election in Kogi west senatorial district.

Olayinde Lawal, returning officer of Saturday’s rerun election, had declared the exercise inconclusive because the number of cancelled votes (43,127) was higher than the margin between Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

While Adeyemi polled 80,118 votes, Melaye trailed with 59,548 votes, leaving a margin of 20,570 votes.

In a statement on Thursday, Festus Okoye, chairman of INEC’s information and voter education committee, announced the date of the supplementary election.

“The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) met today Thursday 21, November 2019 and fixed 30th November 2019 for the conduct of the Supplementary and re-run elections for Kogi West Senatorial District and Ajaokuta Federal Constituency respectively,” he said.

“At the conclusion of the court-ordered Kogi West Senatorial re-run election on 16th November 2019, supplementary polls were indicated by the Collation/Returning Officer for the Senatorial District, affecting 20 Registration Areas. 53 Polling Units and 46,767 Registered Voters spread across 7 Local Government Areas of the Senatorial District.

“In addition. the court ordered the conduct of Supplementary re~run poll in Ajaokuta Federal Constituency affecting 22 Polling Units. Collation procedures shall be in line with extant Guidelines for Collation at the Supplementary polls.

“The list of affected Registration Areas and Polling Units will be uploaded on our website and communicated to the stakeholders in the respective Registration Areas and Polling Units.”