Ekiti: INEC partly releases election results

The re-run election ordered by the court of appeal in Ekiti state, took a new twist yesterday as the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed elections in two wards in Oye Ekiti Local Government Area.

According to a Federal Commissioner of INEC, Stephen Mayah, who made the announcement, elections in the wards, Oye I and Oye II, were postponed because "electoral officials were being attacked" in the area". Armoured Personnel Carriers and anti-riot policemen are reported to have been deployed to the areas.

The Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ayoka Adebayo, said the decision was taken due to the security situation in the area and the need to ensure that the people were not disenfranchised.

The opposition party Action Congress (AC) said the party was dissatisfied with the postponement. Kuminiyi Afuye, the party leader in the Ekiti State House of Assembly said the manner in which the election was conducted was not in accordance to the Electoral Act of 2006.

Although voting was stopped by officials by 4PM, the collation of results, which took place at Christ Girls Secondary School-Ado Ekiti, did not start until 9:46PM.

Of the nine local governments in which elections were conducted, results were announced for only five. The results, which were announced by 10:30PM, saw the People's Democratic Party (PDP) leading the Action Congress by 394 votes.

The results

The table below shows the results of the re-run election in five of the ten local governments in Ekiti state.

Results are yet to be announced in five other local governments. The local governments are:

The elections in two wards in the Oye Ekiti local government area were postponed till Sunday.

Dele Adesina SAN, a native of Ekiti, rebuffed the postponement of the collation of results for some local government till Sunday. He asked the electoral body to let everybody wait for the arrival of the results of the remaining LGA's.

Concerning the postponed elections, an INEC official that although the electoral body was obeying the court order of holding the Ekiti re-run election within 90days, the electoral body will not hesitate to postpone the election again. "If we get to Oye LGA and the people are not ready for us we will postpone the election till a further date," he said.

Pockets of violence where reported across the state during the election. Lawrence Agunbiade, a former Senator, was reportedly shot at in Ise Ekiti Saturday morning by unknown men. He was rushed to a hospital for treatment where he is said to be responding to treatment.

Cases of arson were reported in Ijero, but the police authorities denied the reports on enquiry. In Ado Ekiti, gunshots were fired as the collation process commenced. Some party supporters also burned tires at the entrance of the collation centre near Fajuyi memorial park.

On Februray 17, 2009, a court of appeal had ordered a re-run of the Ekiti State governorship election in ten local governments. Based on the court's ruling, the ruling PDP's candidate, Olusegun Oni has 65,993 votes as against the 72,795 of Kayode Fayemi of the AC. The court nullified 28,166 votes of the AC and 72,581 of the PDP. 225,778 voters are eligible to take part in the re-run election.