After over 18 hours of waiting for the commencement of collation of Saturday’s supplementary election in Bauchi State, the results announced showed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, winning the highest number of votes.
Mohammed secured about 6,376 votes, in 36 polling units across 15 local government areas of the State, while his closest rival and incumbent governor, Barrister Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, of APC, scored 5,117 votes.
The state returning officer, Prof. Muhammed Kyari announced that PDP polled 6,376 votes while the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 5,117. However, the returning officer could not make a return and declaration of governor elect because voting did not take place in Tafawa Balewa Local Government, one of the places where elections where cancelled, due to litigation. A Federal High Court will on Monday decide on whether election will hold in Tafawa Balewa LGA.
Before the re-run, Bala Muhammed of PDP had scored 469,512 while the incumbent Governor Muhammad Abubakar of APC got 465,453 votes in the main election before Tafawa Balewa local government area was declared inconclusive.
In the rerun election, there were 21,737 registered voters with 12,109 accredited voters. But the total votes cast was 11, 971 while 403 were rejected. Summation of the results previously announced on March 10 and the rerun of March 23 scores gave APC total votes of 470,570 votes while the PDP polled 475,888 votes.
The winner of the governorship election could not be declared as the result of one local government area is to be determined by court. The incumbent Governor had filed a case seeking cancellation of the Tafawa Balewa. The Federal High Court in Abuja is to hear the case on Monday, March 24, before the winner can be declared.
