102 elected senators, 338 Reps get certificates today

WINNERS in the February 23 National Assembly elections are to get certificates of return (CoR) today by at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 102 senators-elect will get their certificates by 10am and 338 would-be House of Representatives members will be issued theirs by 2pm.

Going by the list of candidates, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has 63 senators, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 38 and Youth Progressives Party (YFP) has a seat.

Seven seats have been declared inconclusive and will be contested for during the supplementary election slated for March 23.

For the lower chamber, the ruling party also has the majority with 211 members.  The PDP has 111 members.

Other political parties share the remaining 16 seats -APGA (six); African Democratic Congress (ADC), three; Action Alliance (AA) two and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), two. African Democratic Party (ADP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) have one slot each.

Twenty-two seats are still up for grabs where elections were declared inconclusive. Make-up polls in the affected Federal Constituencies (excluding in Rivers State) have been fixed for March 23.

Elections were suspended in Rivers State for INEC to review. The process that has been wracked by protests.

The two major parties – APC and PDP – will be slugging it out in six states where elections were declared inconclusive. They are: Sokoto, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kano, Plateau and Benue.

SOKOTO

There are 526,892 votes to be contested for in the six states.  In Sokoto, where Governor Aminu Waziri of the PDP, who scored 489, 588, was leading with 3,413 votes, the two leading parties will battle for 75,493 votes in 136 polling units in 22 local government areas. The APC candidate, Aliyu Sokoto, was trailing with 486, 145 votes before the process was declared inconclusive.

ADAMAWA

Before the process was declared inconclusive in Adamawa, the PDP, with 367,471 votes as against APC’s 334,995, was leading by 32,476 votes. The candidates of the two parties have 40,998 votes to fight for. Incumbent Governor Jibrilla of the APC and his challenger PDP Umar Fintiri will be slugging it out on March 23.

BAUCHI

In Bauchi, it was too close to call. The PDP candidate Bala Muhammed was leading the APC candidate, Governor Mohammed Abubakar with 4,059. There are 139,240 votes to decide the winner. After the first ballot, the PDP had 469,512 and the APC got 465,453.

BENUE

Governor Samuel Ortom of the PDP, who got 410, 576, was ahead in Benue with 81,554 votes. He will be slugging it out with his APC challenger Emmanuel Jime for 121, 011 votes. Jime got 329, 022 at the close of the first ballot.

PLATEAU

In Plateau, incumbent Governor Simon Lalong of the APC got 583, 255 to lead Senator Jeremiah Useni of the PDP with 44,929 votes. Useni got 538, 326. The duo will be fighting for the outstanding 49,377 votes.

KANO

There are 100, 873 votes to decide who wins the election. The PDP, with 1,014,474 votes, was leading the APC, which got 987, 810, with 26,664 votes.

As at the time of filing this report, the Commission has not received the report from the investigative panel it raised on the disruption of the electoral process in Rivers State.

Though the committee, which was given 48 hours to turn in its report, has not been able to do so as a result of many factors, it has, however, met with critical stakeholders in the state, including the governor and other governorship candidates.

The committee was set up on Sunday to review the situation that led to the disruption of the electoral process. Going by the 48-hour time lag given, the panel ought to have submitted its report on Tuesday.

It was learnt last night that the panel was “wrapping” up its assignment.

The commission had suspended collation and announcement of results, citing electoral violence and safety of its workers. It therefore raised a fact-finding committee to assess the situation and report back within 48 hours.

Responding to an inquiry from our correspondent, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, said the committee may have been bogged down by flight delays and others factors.

He, however, assured that “immediately the committee turns in its report, the commission will take a decision in respect of Rivers State”.

Meanwhile, INEC has debriefed all accredited observers on the last polls.