INEC declares Taraba federal constituency by-election inconclusive
By Chuwang Dungs
The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the Saturday bye-election for Jalingo/Yorro and Zing federal constituency as inconclusive.
The Returning Officer, Daniel Ayuba, of Federal University Wukari announced this at the collation center in Jalingo Local Government Area on Sunday.
He said SadikTafida of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 17214 votes to defeat his closest rival, of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Innocent Jabayang who polled 15537 votes.
Aminu Malle, of the All Progressive Congress (APC) scored 12149.
He however noted that no candidate would be declared return due to the principle of the margin of lead.
“The principle says if the margin of lead is higher than the number of PVCs collected in the polling units put together were affected in terms of cancellation put together if it is higher than the Total PVCs collected then you can make a return, but if the margin of lead is less than the number of PVCs collected in the total affected polling units where votes were canceled then it means there is no declaration.
“If you subtract the total number of votes scored by the SDP from the PDP the margin of lead is 1677 as such ther will be a supplementary election between the PDP and the SDP.
Ayuba stated thus: “the party with the highest votes is PDP with 17,214. The next party is SDP with the total number of votes standing at 15,537. When you subtract what you will get as a margin of lead, it is 1677.
“The summation of the total number of PVC collected stands at 14,759. The implication is that the margin of lead of the winner and the second runner up is less than the total PVCs collected. For this reason, there will be no return. There shall be a supplementary election between the winner and the second runner up and the elections would be conducted in the polling where elections were not conducted.
The Jalingo/Yorro/Zing federal constituency seat had been vacant following the demise of the elected representative, Ismaila Yushau in June 2023.
