Nigeria: INEC admits inflating AC's votes by 10,000 in Anambra
polls
By Vincent Ujumadu
THE
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has admitted before the
five-member Anambra State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in
Awka that the total votes recorded for the candidate of Action Congress, AC, in
the 6 February gubernatorial election, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige, was inflated by
10,000 votes.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr. Josaiah Uwazuruonye, a
lawyer, made the confession yesterday while testifying at the tribunal.
The INEC REC explained: "When the APGA state agent made the allegation that
10,000 unmerited votes were awarded to AC and that it was done by the Electoral
Officer for Idemili-South Local Government Area, there and then, I called the
Electoral Officer and asked the man (the APGA agent) to repeat his allegation
which he did.
Electoral Officer cried
"I asked the Electoral Officer to respond to the allegation. She started crying
and said it was error in calculation."
Uwazuruonye, who was giving evidence under cross examination by Chief George
Enekwechi, counsel to Chief Victor Anigbata, who was candidate of the
National Solidarity Democratic Party, NSDP, in the election, also told the
tribunal that in calculating the percentage of the scores received by candidates
in the local government areas to determine their spread, "rejected or invalid"
votes were not counted.
Led in evidence by the counsel to INEC, Chief J.T. Nnorom, SAN, the Resident
Electoral Commissioner said it was only the total valid votes received by the
candidates that formed the basis for calculating the percentage of votes scored
by candidates in the local government areas.
Although he admitted that the 10,000 inflated votes for the AC candidate in the
total score recorded for him in Idemili South Local Government area was detected
before he declared the result of the gubernatorial election on 7 February 2010,
he said he was encumbered from effecting the correction by Section 69 of the
Electoral Act, 2006.
This was because the inflation was done at the local government collation centre
by the returning officer, while it was detected at the state collation centre,
following complaint made by the APGA state agent, Chief Mike Areh.
The REC said all the local government Returning Officers announced results of
their respective local governments at the state collation centre, while he only
recorded the figures as they announced them.
Source: Vanguard
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