The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday said only the courts could order total cancellation of any election conducted by it.

The commission was reacting to the calls by the All Progressives Congress, Labour Party and their candidates for a total cancellation of the controversial governorship election in Anambra State on Saturday.

It said since the Chief Returning Officer, Prof. James Epoke, had announced most of the results, INEC had no power to do anything contrary.

“By law, those results are now beyond the purview of INEC to invalidate. Only the courts have that power now to do so,” Mr. Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, told The PUNCH in Abuja.

Idowu added that with the inclusive nature of the election as declared by Onukogu, all that “the commission can do is to conduct a supplementary election so that the CRO can make a return.”

He explained that INEC was “ awaiting the return of field officers, who went for the election so that every report obtained , especially concerning logistical issues, could be painstakingly scrutinised.”

It is after this, he said, that Jega and his national commissioners would meet to fix a date for the supplementary election.

The APC candidate, Chris Ngige; his PDP and LP counterparts, Tony Nwoye and Mr. Ifeanyi Uba, had on Sunday jointly called for a total cancellation of the poll.

They told INEC to conduct a fresh election before the March, 2014 handover date by the incumbent Governor, Peter Obi.

Epoke had in Awka on Monday morning that the election was declared inconclusive because it did not meet certain requirements of the Electoral Act.

He said that the Act required that for a winner to be declared in an election, the difference in the total voting population of the areas where the exercise was cancelled should be less than the difference between the votes scored by the candidate with the highest votes and the votes of the candidate with the second highest votes.

He said in the case of Anambra State, the total voting population of the areas in which election was cancelled was 113,113.

The figure, according to him, is higher than the 79,754 difference between the leading candidate’s votes and the second highest candidate’s votes.

With this, the CRO said, INEC had no choice but to declare the election inconclusive.

Epoke added, “The rule guiding this election is that for a winner to emerge, he must have majority of votes cast and the required spread of 25 per cent of votes in two-thirds of the local government areas.

“We observed that due to many reasons, there were a lot of cancelled votes that made it difficult for a winner to emerge.”

The CRO said the winner of the election would be only be declared after election had been conducted in the areas where the exercise was cancelled.

He also explained that election was cancelled in some polling units because of snatching of ballot materials; delivering of coded ballot materials to wrong collation centres and the non-arrival of election materials at polling units.

In the election result received and released by INEC, Chief Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance led with 174,710 votes.

The Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mr. Tony Nwoye, was second with 94,956 votes while the All Progressives Congress candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige, was third with 92,300 votes.

The Labour Party candidate, Ifeanyi Ubah, came fourth with 37,446 votes and the Progressives Peoples Alliance candidate, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, was fifth with 5,056 votes.

The total valid votes cast in the election were 413,005.

INEC announced that the supplementary election would take place in 15 local government areas, where 113,113 voters were denied the right to vote because election was cancelled in their polling units.

Most of the cancelled polling units(160) are in Idemilli North LGA where 89,997 voters were disenfranchised.

Also affected are Idemili South with one polling unit and 636 voters ; Ekwusigo, three polling units with 884 voters; Ayamelum, three polling units with 1,247 voters; Anambra East, one polling unit with 250 voters; Anambra West, six polling units with 2,000 voters; Anaocha, one polling unit with 276 voters ; and Awka North, two polling units with 1,366 voters.

The rest are Awka South, one polling unit with 249 voters; Nnewi South, two polling units with 376 voters ; Onitsha North, one polling unit with 484 voters; Onitsha South, 17 polling units with 12,279 voters ; Orumba North, four polling units with 588 voters; and Oyi four polling units with 1,202 voters.

The failure of INEC to fix a date for the supplementary election created some confusion especially among the poll monitors and journalists.

Many waited till Monday afternoon before moving out of their hotel rooms when it became obvious to them that INEC had not decided on a date for the supplementary poll.

On Monday evening, the riot policemen deployed in INEC office in Awka were also seen moving out after some ceremonies.

Kingsley1000: Am a die hard fan of ngige,in this situation.i advice him to concede defeat...he really no doubt has served exceedingly for ndi-anambra

Kingsley1000: Am a die hard fan of ngige,in this situation.i advice him to concede defeat...he really no doubt has served exceedingly for ndi-anambra

berem: even if he should concede a defeat, definitely not now. He should go to court first and challenge the outcome of the election and if there is going to be a fresh election,so be it. His name is still written on gold as a one time best governor of Anambra State.

ogologodimkpa: Best Governor my foot .
A position he occupied thruogh massive rigging?
Thank God cos he was finally disgraced out of office for Peter Obi to come in .

Kingsley1000: Am a die hard fan of ngige,in this situation.i advice him to concede defeat...he really no doubt has served exceedingly for ndi-anambra

ogologodimkpa: Best Governor my foot .
A position he occupied thruogh massive rigging?
Thank God cos he was finally disgraced out of office for Peter Obi to come in .

AtlanticBreeze:
Peter obi the kindergarten rigger who couldn't cover his tracks. We all Know Ngige remains the best governor Anambra has produced. urchins like you need to get a life.

dazey: One down rochas is the next to kick out

bushwailo: I was a bit disappointed in the election results and how poorly APC performed.
The reality is that these BIAFRA and Catholic bigots are still strong and make a majority of Anambra electorate.
Anambra is still mainly conservative and not ready for change.

If the election is conducted again, I don't see Ngige winning.
Ngige should accept the results and let Anambra have Obiano.
They deserve what they voted for.

I only hope Obiano will break away from Obis policies for the betterment of the state.
As per Igbo presidency..... as an Igbo man who followed the last election in Anambra with the level of religious and tribal bigotry,
I don't think we deserve a shot for the next 50 years.

AtlanticBreeze: People who are quick to ask Ngige to concede defeat are foolish, Despite all the rigging and flawed voters register, Ngige still got over 90k votes outside his stronghold, with APGA struggling with 170k out of 1.7m registered voters. Anambra people didn't vote APGA, and Ngige will always win in a credible poll. Its a pity most of you have been weighed down by the propaganda of Peter obi urchins on the internet, why not ask them why they failed to take the votes in one fell swoop since they claim Anambra will not vote APC. why must APGA rig APC to 'win marginally' in alaigbo. Reminds me of Awo and Zik in SW.

alexchiny:

ODirom ka ibu nwa afor Igbo! Anyway, FYI son, we Igbos are not desperate for the presidency, it will come when it's time for it. We rejected APC because we are not yet convinced of their sincerity and what they could offer us. They should use the next 4 years and build a better relationship with us and then present a formidable candidate. They just might get it then but for now, we in Anambra are more comfortable with our APGA!

AtlanticBreeze: People who are quick to ask Ngige to concede defeat are foolish, Despite all the rigging and flawed voters register, Ngige still got over 90k votes outside his stronghold, with APGA struggling with 170k out of 1.7m registered voters. Anambra people didn't vote APGA, and Ngige will always win in a credible poll. Its a pity most of you have been weighed down by the propaganda of Peter obi urchins on the internet, why not ask them why they failed to take the votes in one fell swoop since they claim Anambra will not vote APC. why must APGA rig APC to 'win marginally' in alaigbo. Reminds me of Awo and Zik in SW.

bashy_demy: You are complete eediot for saying that, Even if he occupy the post with rigging and he performed then what, He never want to sell state to Godfather's and accept they rigged so is that not enough to name him an honest Governor? What as your so call Governors that occupy the post with genuine election did? I would rather rig Fashola into Aso rock and perform than vote for Gbenga Daniel to be President and loot the treasury

AtlanticBreeze:
Peter obi the kindergarten rigger who couldn't cover his tracks. We all Know Ngige remains the best governor Anambra has produced. urchins like you need to get a life.

alexchiny:

Freeglobe, stop lamenting! APC cannot defeat APGA in a Gubernatorial election in Anambra State! They even came 3rd because of Ngige's partial popularity in his senatorial zone. Stop giving your fellow APC e-warriors hope! Thank You!

bushwailo: I was a bit disappointed in the election results and how poorly APC performed.
The reality is that these BIAFRA and Catholic bigots are still strong and make a majority of Anambra electorate.
Anambra is still mainly conservative and not ready for change.

If the election is conducted again, I don't see Ngige winning.
Ngige should accept the results and let Anambra have Obiano.
They deserve what they voted for.

I only hope Obiano will break away from Obis policies for the betterment of the state.
As per Igbo presidency..... as an Igbo man who followed the last election in Anambra with the level of religious and tribal bigotry,
I don't think we deserve a shot for the next 50 years.

ogologodimkpa:
Best Governor indeed when he stole the people's mandate to get to the Gov't house Awka ?
Was he not disgraced out of the office at the end ?

ogologodimkpa:
Best Governor indeed when he stole the people's mandate to get to the Gov't house Awka ?
Was he not disgraced out of the office at the end ?

asha 80: all these lamentations self.

bushwailo:
You need to compare your voting pattern to that of the Yorubas to see how unsophisticated you are.
The Yoruba's voted against Obasanjo, a bona fide son, he lost in his own village.
They voted PDPs GEJ even while voting en masse for ACN on the governoship level.
The voted out all underperforming AD governors leaving only Tinubu.
The list goes on and on .....

Nwanne ka anyi kwu ezi okwu. We have a long way to go.
Do you know the way we look when politicians are campaigning in Catholic Churches.
With reverend fathers openly woed in the media.
With stories of pastors being slapped swaying voters in Enugu and Imo state.

And what has APGA done to convince you apart from claiming that they are Igbo party.
Igbo party with no presence outside Anambra state.