‘Over voting’: INEC declares Zamfara central, Yobe south polls inconclusive

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the senatorial election in Zamfara central and Yobe south inconclusive due to over-voting and other irregularities.

Ahmad Galadima, returning officer of the district, said on Tuesday that the declaration also affected Gusau and Tsafe federal constituency.

NAN reports that Galadima said the elections in 74 polling units from 19 registration areas of Bungude, Gusau, and Tsafe were canceled.

He said only 43,881 voters were registered whereas the PDP got 93,120 votes while APC scored 79,444.

Aminu Dabai, returning officer of Gusau and Tsafe constituency, said the votes of 38 polling centres were invalidated.

Dabai said the lead margin between the APC and PDP in seven registration areas did not tally with the total number of collected permanent voter cards (PVCs).

He canceled the election and said that INEC would inform the electorate about the dates of a supplementary poll.

In a related development, Shettima Saidu, returning officer of Yobe, said the state south senatorial district election was declared inconclusive.

Saidu said the votes in Manawaci 003 polling unit in Fika LGA were cancelled due to irregularities including over-voting.

He said declaring the election inconclusive was necessary, adding that the valid votes surpassed the total number of accredited voters in the unit.

He added that a fresh election would be conducted in Bomoi and Mazagane senatorial districts.

“I want us to get it straight that the difference between the first and second positions is 617 votes. However, we had a total of 1,118 votes cancelled in the process of the election,” he said.

“If the difference was higher than the votes cancelled, then we would have declared the winner.

“But, by virtue of section 4(2)(7) of INEC manual, where cancelled votes are higher than the lead margin, we can’t declare a winner.”