The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed Thursday, March 28, 2018, for the supplementary governorship election in Adamawa state.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Kassim Gaidam, said this at the commission’s office in Yola, the state capital, on Tuesday, March 26, 2019.
Giadam said sequel to the High Court ruling which vacated the restraining order halting the INEC from conducting the supplementary poll, INEC consulted security agencies before selecting March 28 for the exercise.
The court had previously restrained INEC from conducting the exercise based on a suit filed by the governorship candidate of the Movement For Restoration and Defense for Democracy (MRDD), Mustafa Shaba.
Shaba had sued the commission over the absence of his party’s logo on the ballot paper of the election held on March 9, 2019, that was declared inconclusive.
“I hereby grant the following order: ‘the defendant the INEC is restrain whether by themselves, their executives, servants, privies, representative, nominees or any other person or persons from proceeding with the supplementary election in respect of Adamawa pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice,” Abdulazeez Waziri, the presiding judge, had ruled.
Adamawa governorship election
Following the conduct of the March 9 election, INEC declared the Adamawa governorship race inconclusive because the lead margin was lower than the total number of votes cancelled in certain areas.
With 367,471 votes, Fintiri was in the lead over the incumbent governor, Jibrilla Bindow, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 334,995 votes, but the margin of 32,476 votes was lower than the 40,988 votes cancelled in 44 polling units.
According to the "Margin of Lead Principle" contained in Sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act and paragraph 41(e) and 43(b) of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines, the commission cannot declare a winner if the number of cancelled votes can mathematically affect the outcome of the election.
The supplementary election will take place only in the polling units where elections were cancelled.
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