‘They Want To Impose A Candidate’ — LP’s Ireti Kingibe Rejects INEC’s Cancellation Of FCT Senatorial Results
The Labour Party candidate, Ireti Kingibe, has rejected the cancellation of some election results in Saturday’s FCT senatorial election which was presumably won by her over allegations of over-voting.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja late Monday, Kingibe stated that she believed the democratic process must be allowed to run its course and that cancelling the election results due to error in collation would be a violation of the rights of the voters who had cast their ballots in good faith.
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Her address came after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reportedly cancelled the senatorial results for Abaji and Bwari on the grounds of over-voting.
She argued that contrary to INEC’s claim, there was no over-voting in the area councils, therefore, the cancellation was uncalled for.
She said she was told that the person that wrote the figure made a mistake whether knowingly or unknowingly, “and the person put two plus two equals to five”.
She added that INEC now referred to the mistake as over-voting.
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She noted that the returning officer had said it was an error from the person that wrote the results “whether he did it on purpose or accidentally, was not clear”.
“All the results sheets show there was no over-voting in any of the polling units. So, why cancel the result of the entire area council? We have watched them.
“They have been looking for a reason to cancel all our strongholds and suddenly, they found an error and that can’t stand.
“They said it is not their job to look at the results sheets on over-voting. We have had enough.
“They said we should go to the polls, they want to impose people on us, it will not work. The way this country is going, we’ve had enough.””
THE WHISTLER reports that section 51 of the Electoral Act 2022 which deals on over-voting in an election, instructs that “(2) Where the number of votes cast at an election in any polling unit exceeds the number of accredited voters in that polling unit, the Presiding officer shall cancel the result of the election in that polling unit” but not the entire results of the ward or Local Government Area.
