Osun-election: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the Governorship election (Osun-election) inconclusive, and a run-off declared, saying the decision contradicts the 1999 Constitution as regards to Governorship election.
The major opposition political party in a statement released it’s National Publicity Secretary Mr. Kola Ologbondiya a few hours ago, rejected the move by INEC and also condemned the electoral umpire’s refusal to declare their candidate in the just concluded Osun-election Senator Ademola Adeleke the winner of the election.
According to the results released by INEC, the PDP won the election by a slim margin, scoring 254,698 of total votes, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate scored 254,345. Both leading candidates had a difference of about 354 votes.
The difference made INEC say that the total registered voters in the five polling units in the Osun-election which were canceled is 3,498 votes. Since that figure was higher than the difference between the votes of the leading candidates, a run-off election had to be conducted.
This move angered the PDP, as they released a statement stating:
“We reject in its entirety, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) declaration of the September 22, 2018 Osun State Governorship election as inconclusive.
The process was conclusive and our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, who won a total of 254, 698 votes, is in clear lead and should be immediately declared winner by INEC, having met the requirements of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Section 179 (2) (a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, (as amended), is clear and very unambiguous in spelling out the conditions for returning a candidate to the office of governor of a state.
This section states inter-alia, “A candidate for an election to the office of Governor of a State shall be deemed to have been duly elected where…- (a) he has the highest number of votes cast ..and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast.
The declaration of the election as inconclusive, by INEC is therefore a sordid robbery of the franchise of the people of Osun State, who participated in the election.
It is obvious that having failed in their schemes to alter the final results due to the resistance of the people, the APC had to bear pressure on INEC to declare the election inconclusive so as to pave way for the perfection of their manipulative schemes”