Even though Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has since been adjudged the presumed winner of the election held on Saturday, November 6, it is not yet uhuru for him.
Out of Anambra State’s 21 Local Government Areas, he has won a whopping 17, enough to declare him the winner. His closest rival, Valentine Ozigbo, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has won only one Local Government, Ogbaru, and so did the candidate of the YPP, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah who won his LGA, Nnewi North.
Surprisingly, Senator Andy Uba, the candidate of the All Progressives Cogress, APC, has not won any LGA.
Yet, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has not declared Soludo the winner of the election. To, INEC, the election is inconclusive.
That is because the Commission says there was no election in Ihiala LGA.
Soludo has 45,000 votes more than Ozigbo who came second. But the number of registered voters in Ihiala is 148,000, way more than Soludo’s gap of 45,000. Meaning that he cannot be declared the winner.
With an outstanding 148,000, and even though not all registered voters are likely to get accredited and vote, INEC is not taking any chances. Anything could happen.
To be a winner, one is not only required to get 25 per cent in 2/3 of the LGAs, one is expected to get majority of the the votes. The outstanding votes in Ihiala are more than the number of votes Soludo garnered – a little over 99,000.
So, on November 9, Soludo will again be on the ballot. Many say it is for pride. But a source close to him told this magazine that he is taking no chances, and taking nothing for granted.
“He will give it his all”, the source said.
It was not confirmed at the time of writing this if other parties, especially, the APC will opt out of the November 9 election. This is because the APC has already rejected the entire exercise.
At a press conference on Sunday, November 7, the State Chairman of the party, Basil Ejidike, who lost his ward; called for the cancelation of the November 6, 2021 election for a fresh one. He said it was fraudulent, and claimed that the APC won the election, but was brazenly robbed of victory by Governor Willie Obiano in an alleged connivance with “unscrupulous” INEC officials. He declared that his party would head for the Court’s, and pursue it to the Supreme Court. It is, therefore, doubtful it would participate in the November 9 election, said a source close to the Chairman Ejidike.
The winner of the Governorship election will be announced on November 9.
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