The Independent Electoral Commission INEC has declared all candidates of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winners of the Zamfara elections, as Bello Matawalle now becomes the Governor-elect, alongside other candidates who contested the 2019 general election in the State under PDP.
The announcement from INEC is coming following the judgement of the Supreme Court on Friday that voided the votes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) due to its flawed primaries in the State. This automatically makes all the candidates from the Governorship election to the National and State House of Assembly who came second behind APC, which in this case, is the PDP winners of the 2019 General elections.
INEC Chair Professor Mahmood Yakubu while addressing the press and stakeholders on Saturday, had thsi to say:
“It is important to provide a background to the legal process that culminated in the Supreme Court decision on 24/5/19. You may all recall that the Commission issued the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 general elections on 9/1/18, over one year in advance.
Among other activities, the conduct of party primaries was scheduled to take place between 18th August and 7th October 2018.
Unfortunately, the APC did not conduct its primaries in Zamfara State within this stipulated time and the Commission duly informed the party that it would not be in a position to present candidates for elections in the State.
Subsequently, various interested parties, including the APC itself, approached the court over the decision of the Commission.
Just before the election, the subsisting court judgment at the time ordered the Commission to include the APC on the ballot for the Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly elections, which the Commission complied with.
However, since the elections were completed, a Court of Appeal judgment and now a Supreme Court judgment have determined that the APC did not conduct valid primaries for the elections in question.
In its judgment delivered on 24/5/19, the Supreme Court, having determined that the APC did not conduct valid primaries, said that the votes cast for the party in all the elections in question were “wasted” and ordered the Commission to recognize the runners-up as the winners.
This judgment affects the positions of Governor and Deputy-Governor, three Senatorial, seven Federal and twenty-four State Assembly Constituencies.
Following the judgment of the Supreme Court, the Commission has met in two emergency sessions and taken briefings from our lawyers and staff on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment.
While the legislative elections (Senatorial, House of Representatives & State House of Assembly elections) are straight forward to deal with because they entail first-past-the-post or a simple majority of votes, the Governorship election is determined not just by majority votes
but also spread in accordance with Section 179 (2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). This means that we had to first discount the votes cast for the APC at the elections and then carefully rework the spread by Local Government Areas based on the new valid votes,” he said.
INEC listed the names and party of Zamfara election and that will be given certificate of return to in Zamfara State, as:
Governorship
1. GOVERNOR: Bello Mohammed Matawalle MALE, PDP
2. DEPUTY GOVERNOR:
MAHDI ALIYU GUSAU, MALE, PDP.
Senatorial
1. ZAMFARA NORTH
ALHAJI YA’U SAHABI
MALE, PDP
2. ZAMFARA CENTRAL
MOHAMMED HASSAN
MALE, PDP
3. ZAMFARA WEST
LAWALI HASSAN ANKA
MALE
PDP
House of Representatives
1. KAURAN NAMODA/BIRNIN MAGAJI
UMAR SANI DAN-GALADIMA
MALE, PDP
2. SHINKAFI/ZURMI
BELLO HASSAN SHINKAFI
MALE, PDP
3. GUSAU/TSAFE
KABIRU AMADU
MALE, PDP
4. BUNGUDU/MARU
SHEHU AHMED
MALE, PDP
5. ANKA/TALATA MAFARA
KABIRU YAHAYA
MALE, PDP
6. BAKURA/MARADUN
AHMED MUHAMMAD BAKURA
MALE, PDP
7. GUMMI/BUKKUYUM
SULAIMAN ABUBAKAR GUMI
MALE, PDP
State House of Assembly
1. KAURA NAMODA NORTH
ZAHARADEEN M. SADA
MALE, PDP
2. KAURA NAMODA SOUTH
ANAS SARKIN FADA
MALE, PDP
3. BIRNIN MAGAJI
NURA DAHIRU
MALE, PDP
4. ZURMI EAST
SALIHU USMAN ZURMI
MALE, PDP
5. ZURMI WEST
NASIRU MU’AZU
MALE, PDP
6. SHINKAFI
MUHAMMAD G. AHMAD
MALE, PDP
7. TSAFE EAST
MUSA BAWA MUSA
MALE, PDP
8. TSAFE WEST
ALIYU NA-MAIGORA
MALE, PDP
9. GUSAU EAST
IBRAHIM NAIDA
MALE,PDP
10. GUSAU WEST
SHAFI’U DAMA
MALE, PDP
11. BUNGUDU EAST
KABIRU MAGAJI
MALE, PDP
12. BUNGUDU WEST
NASIRU BELLO LAWAL
MALE, PDP
13. MARU NORTH
YUSUF ALHASSAN MUHAMMAD
MALE, PDP
14. MARU SOUTH
KABIRU HASHIMU
MALE, NRM
15. ANKA
YUSUF MUHAMMAD
MALE, PDP
16. TALATA MAFARA NORTH
SHAMSUDEEN HASSAN
MALE, PDP
17. TALATA MAFARA SOUTH
AMINU YUSUF JANGEBE
MALE, PDP
18. BAKURA
TUKUR JEKADA BIRNIN TUDU
MALE, PDP
19. MARADUN I
FARUK MUSA DOSARA
MALE, PDP
20. MARADUN II
NASIRU ATIKU
MALE, PDP
21. GUMMI I
ABDULNASIR IBRAHIM
MALE, PDP
22. GUMMI II
MANSUR MOHAMMED
MALE, PDP
23. BUKKUYUM NORTH
IBRAHIM MOHAMMED NA’IDDA
MALE, PDP
24. BUKKUYUM SOUTH
SANI DAHIRU
MALE, PDP