The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed Saturday, April 15 for governorship, national and state assembly supplementary elections.
The commission made the disclosure in a statement on Monday.
INEC said, “Arising from its meeting held today, the Independent National Electoral Commission has decided that all outstanding Governorship, National and State Assembly supplementary elections will take place on Saturday 15th April 2023.”
Read full statement:
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION
PRESS RELEASE
CONDUCT OF SUPPLEMENTARY ELECTIONS
The Commission met today Monday 27th March 2023 and reviewed the areas where supplementary elections are required to conclude the outstanding Governorship, National and State Assembly elections across the country.
It will be recalled that 26 State Governorship, 104 Senatorial, 329 Federal and 935 State constituency elections have been concluded and winners declared.
Consequently, supplementary Governorship elections will be held in Adamawa and Kebbi States, 5 Senatorial Districts, 31 Federal and 58 State Assembly constituencies. Owing to the competitive nature of the elections, especially for legislative seats, supplementary elections will be held in just a few polling unit in some constituencies.
A comprehensive list of the polling units by State, Local Government, Registration Area, registered voters and PVCs collected will be published on our website on or before Wednesday 29th March 2023.
Meanwhile, the Commission has fixed Saturday 15th April 2023 for the conduct of the supplementary elections in the affected polling units nationwide.
We appeal to all political parties, candidates and stakeholders to note the date and locations of the supplementary elections. The earlier accreditation for polling and collation agents, observers and the media still subsists for the supplementary elections.
The Commission once again urges political parties, candidates and their supporters to see the exercise as an election and not war. They should avoid incendiary statements and negative mobilisation so that the elections can be conducted and concluded as scheduled.
Barr. Festus Okoye
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee
Monday 27th March 2023
Arising from its meeting held today, the Independent National Electoral Commission has decided that all outstanding Governorship, National and State Assembly supplementary elections will take place on Saturday 15th April 2023.
— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) March 27, 2023
A detailed official statement will follow shortly.
The announcement comes barely one week after the governorship elections of Kebbi and Adamawa states were declared inconclusive.
Last Monday, the election in Kebbi was declared inconclusive due to breaches of electoral laws that led to cancellation of results in polling units within 20 of the state’s 21 local government areas (LGAs).
INEC’s Returning Officer in the state, Professor Yusuf Sa’idu, said violence, destruction of election materials, disruption of electoral proceedings and over-voting played a role in having the election declared inconclusive.
Before declaring the election inconclusive, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was leading the poll with 388,258 votes, as against 342,980 votes scored by the PDP.
Meanwhile, in Adamawa, the candidate of the APC, Senator Aishatu Dahiru (aka Binani) got 390,275 votes while the incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri and PDP candidate polled 421,524 votes.
However, INEC state collation officer, Prof Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, declared the election inconclusive due to the margin of votes.
He said, “Elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units. So, this gives us a margin of 31,249. The total number of PVCs collected in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016.”