PDP says INEC. lacks basis to conduct a supplementary election in Bauchi state.

INEC had declared the governorship election in Bauchi state inconclusive and fixed March 23, 2019, as date for a supplementary election in some local governments.

The electoral body had owned up to the fact that its officials had mistakenly added a zero to the vote difference between the two main political parties resulting in the cancelled election.

INEC then fixed Tuesday, March 19, 2019, to collate the vote fo Tafawa Balewa local government.

Just before the collation, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ibrahim Abdullahi, informed journalists that the was a court order received by the commission restraining it from collating and subsequently announcing of Tafawa Balewa local government governorship results.

This meant that that there would return to the initial plan of conducting a supplementary election on March 23.

But in a letter to the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the National chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, called on the electoral body to suspend the planned supplementary election until results of the governorship poll which took place on March 9, 2019, were collated.

PDP chairman, Uche Secondus ece-auto-gen

Secondus argue that it was illegal to conduct another election if the results of the previous polls had not been determined through collation.

“By the combined effect of Paragraphs 33 (a), (e) and 34 (e) of the Guidelines, the Commission shall wait to determine the margin of lead between the two (2) leading candidates for the governorship elections after collation of the overall results of the election before deciding to embark on supplementary elections,” the letter said.

“Therefore, in this present situation in Bauchi where one local government area election result has not been collated i.e. Tafawa Balewa, the commission cannot determine the lead between the candidates, hence there is no basis for supplementary elections at the polling units cancelled pursuant to Sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act.

“‘We therefore demand for immediate suspension of the supplementary election scheduled for 23rd March 2019 until collation of results from Tafawa Balewa has been conclusively carried out,” the party maintained.

The Bauchi state governor, Mohammed Abubakar, has however, threatened to sue INEC if it fails to conduct a supplementary election in the state.

Meanwhile, INEC would conduct supplementary elections in Kano, Benue, Sokoto and Adamawa states.