The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Prof Charles Soludo, is leading in the Anambra State governorship election, which started on Saturday, as he has won 18 out of 20 Local Government Areas from results declared on Sunday night by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Also, INEC has suspended the collation of results for the Anambra State governorship election. This was confirmed by INEC’s Chief Returning Officer for the election, Professor Florence Obi, on Monday at the commission’s head office in Awka.

Party agents, reporters, and observers among others had waited until about 12:15am for the declaration of a winner before events took a different turn as a result of Professor Obi’s announcement, which was monitored by Nairametrics on Monday.

What INEC is saying

Rather than declaring the winner of the election after announcing the total votes scored by the participating parties, Professor Obi said a declaration would only be made after a supplementary election was conducted in the remaining local government – Ihiala.

She said, “We have collated results from 20 out of 21 local government areas.

“The outstanding results are for Ihiala Local Government Area where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials on Saturday.

“Consequently, based on Constitutional considerations and provisions of the Electoral Act, as well as revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of election issued by the commission, a supplementary election is indicated for Ihiala Local Government Area.”

According to her, a supplementary election would be conducted in the 326 polling units across Ihiala on Tuesday, November 9, as Ihiala is the only one of Anambra’s 21 LGAs where elections could not hold.

She said, “Clause 47 of the Revised Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of elections provides that supplementary elections shall be conducted where the commission due to logistic challenges is unable to deploy on Election Day.

“Given the foregoing, it becomes imperative to bring Ihiala Local Government Area at par with the other 20 local government areas in this election before we can make a valid declaration in this election or take any further action based on the extant laws.

“Therefore, I, Professor Florence Banku Obi, in my capacity as Returning Officer for this election, hereby announce the suspension of the process of collation of results and declaration of a winner until a supplementary election is held in the 326 polling units in Ihiala Local Government Area of the state.”

“I have conferred with the commission, being the body that fixes the date for the election, and the commission has decided that the supplementary election will take place on Tuesday, 9th November 2021. Therefore, the collation of results shall resume thereafter,” she added.

She appealed to party agents and the people of the state to support INEC during the supplementary election to ensure that the election is brought to a satisfactory conclusion, for the good of the people of Anambra State, the people of Nigeria, and to the Glory of God.

Meanwhile, results were announced for all other LGAs with Soludo, winning in 18 of the 20 LGAs for which results were declared.

Similarly, candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Valentine Ozigbo, and Young Progressives Party (YPP), Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, each won a local government.

However, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Andy Uba, was unable to win any local government in the election.

Voting highlights in key LGAs

• Orunmba South Local Government Area, APGA scored 4,394 votes to defeat the APC, which got 2,060 votes; the PDP scored 1,672 votes; while the YPP got 887 votes.
• Awka South Local Government Area, APGA got 12,891 votes, while the PDP, the APC and the YPP scored 5,498; 2,595 and 919 votes, respectively.
• APGA got 4,124 votes in the Dunukofia Local Government Area, while the PDP, the APC and the YPP were credited with 1,680; 1,991 and 1,360 votes, respectively.
• Oyi Local Government Area, APGA secured 6,133 votes against the PDP, the APC and the YPP’s 2,484; 2,830 and 900 votes, respectively.
• Peter Obi’s Anaocha, APGA got 6,919 votes to defeat the PDP, which got 5,108, while the APC and the YPP scored 2,085 and 868 votes, respectively.
• In Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige’s Idemili South LGA, APGA recorded 2,312 votes against the PDP’s 2,016; while Ngige’s APC got 1,039 votes and the YPP recorded 752 votes.
• Njikoka Local Government Area, APGA got 8,803 votes; the PDP scored 3,409 votes; the APC, 3,216 votes, while the YPP secured 924 votes.
• Nnewi North Local Government Area, where the YPP candidate won with 6,485 votes as against the candidates of APGA, the PDP and the APC, who polled 3,369; 1,511 and 1,278 votes, respectively.
• In Aguata Local Government Area, where Ubah, Soludo and Ozigbo hail from, APGA got 9,136 votes; the APC scored 4,773; the PDP got 3,798, while the YPP secured 1,070 votes.
• In Nnewi North, PDP won by 3,445 votes against APGA’s 3,051 votes; the APC recorded 1,178 votes, while the YPP picked up 484 votes.
• Nnewi South Local Government Area showed that APGA recorded 3,243 votes to defeat the PDP, which got 2,226 votes; the YPP secured 1,327, while the APC got 1,307