The YIAGA Africa on Thursday said that the Supreme Court inflated the number of votes in its judgement on the March 9, 2019 governorship in Imo State by 92,597 votes.
The nation’s apex court had on Tuesday declared Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election in the state after sacking Chief Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The court also ordered INEC to withdraw the CoR issued to Mr. Ihedioha, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and issued same to Uzodimma, a former Chairman Senate committee on Aviation.
Uzodimma had been sworn-in as the state governor.
However, reacting to the judgement, the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Mr. Samson Itodo, said that while the full judgement of the Supreme court on Imo is being awaited, the Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should not have made a declaration because the PDP candidate did not fulfill the constitutional requirements.
According to him, that election was meant to be declared inconclusive but he went ahead to make a declaration.
“The Supreme Court relied on results from over 300 polling units where @inecnigeria declined to certify results due to irregularities, non use of the smart card readers and violence. How come only two parties were on the results sheets from the over 366 polling units in an election with 70 candidates?
“This is official results for the Imo governorship before the Supreme court judgement total no of polling units= 3,523; total no of accredited voters= 823,743; total no of valid votes= 714,355; total no of rejected votes= 25,130; and total votes cast= 739,485.
“The difference between the total no of accredited voters and total votes cast is 84,258. This includes cancelled votes and those areas where smartcard readers were not used. Based on INEC’s results, the gap btw the PDP and APC candidate is 176,946 votes. From the Supreme Court’s judgment, its appears the APC candidate secured more than 176,969 votes from the 388 polling units to win the election.
“Let us work with 176,969 pending the release of the Supreme Court results. 176,969 votes + 739, 485 (total votes cast) = 916,431 exceeding the total number of accredited voters in the election which stood at 823,834. Why the difference of 92,597 votes?” Itodo said in a chat with Daily Trust.
He said that in Zamfara State the Supreme Court declared APC’s votes as wasted and ordered INEC to collate the valid votes and determine the winners where the thresholds were met and wonder why did the Supreme Court proceed to collate and declare a winner in Imo?
He said, “Can the Supreme Court tell us the number of accredited voters, rejected and cancelled votes. Can the Supreme Court tell us the locations of the 388 PUs where results were not reflected so a comparison can be made with the original results declared by INEC?”
He lamented that the judiciary is setting a bad precedent for the nation’s elections.
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