Inconclusive Election: What it means and why INEC did not declare winner in Kebbi and Adamawa
The gubernatorial election in Adamawa State, which was keenly contested between Senator Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the incumbent governor of the state and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Fintiri, was declared inconclusive by the National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 20, 2023.
With results from all the 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state declared, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri leads with 421,524 votes in 13 LGAs, while Senator Dahiru has polled 390,275 votes.
Citing that the margin between the two candidates is lesser than the total number of collected PVCs in the areas where elections were not held, the state collation officer, Professor Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, declared the election inconclusive.
What does the law say about declaring an election inconclusive?
According to section 82 of INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, released in 2022, ahead of the 2023 general elections, an election shall be declared inconclusive if:
1) The margin of victory between the two leading candidates is less than the total number of canceled votes.
2) The margin of victory between the two leading candidates is less than the number of registered voters in the polling units where elections were not held or results were canceled.
3) There is evidence of widespread violence, rigging, or other irregularities that affected the election outcome.
This provision allows for the declaration of an inconclusive election if the margin of lead between the two leading candidates is less than the total number of registered voters in the polling units where elections were not held or results were canceled, and the election cannot be reasonably extended to allow affected registered voters to cast their votes.
Professor Mele said that elections were not held in 67 polling units within the state.
He said: “Elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units. So, this gives us a margin of 31,249. The total number of PVCs collated in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016.”
In Kebbi state, the election was equally declared inconclusive by the Returning Officer, Professor Yusuf Sa’idu of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, due to the margin of votes between the two leading candidates.
He said: “We aggregated the total number of collected PVCs in those polling units, and it came to 91,829. And when we checked the results, the two leading political parties in this contest, APC and PDP, polled 388,258 and 342,980 votes, respectively. When we looked at the difference, it stands at 45,278.”
However, in Ogun State, where Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party was declared the winner of the election, with 13,912 votes more than Ladi Adebutu of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the number of canceled votes was recorded as 33,750.
