APC’s Simon Lalong re-elected Plateau State gov

Sunday, 24 March 2019 04:43

APC’s Simon Lalong re-elected Plateau State gov

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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared governor Simon Lalong of All Progressive Congress (APC) winner of the 2019 governorship election in Plateau State.

Mr Richard Kimbir, Vice Chancellor of University of Agriculture, Makurdi, made the declaration early Sunday morning at the state INEC headquarters after concluding the supplementary election held on Saturday.

Mr Lalong defeated Mr Jeremiah Useni of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who came second in the election.

Plateau governorship election was, on March 11, declared inconclusive by the state returning officer, Mr Kimbir, a professor. He said the margin between the two leading candidates was less than the number of votes cancelled in the entire election.

According to INEC, on March 11, Lalong had scored 583,255 votes while Useni scored 548,336 votes, highlighting that none of the leading candidates met all the requirements of the law to win the election.

49,347 votes across 40 polling units were cancelled in nine Local Government Areas of the state.

The affected LGAs where the rerun held include; Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Jos North, Kanam, Langtang South, Mangu, Pankshin, and Shendam.

Announcing the final election results scored by each party, the returning officer said Lalong of APC scored 595,582 votes while Useni of PDP scored 546,813.

“Simon Lalong of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared winner and returned elected,” the returning said.

The margin between the winner and the runner-up is 48,769 votes.

The result of the election indicated that out of 17 LGAs of the state, Mr Lalong won in 11 while Mr Useni won in six.

Sunday’s final result marks the second time Lalong is defeating the PDP in the state. In 2015, he defeated late Gyang Pwajok of PDP to become the first governor from opposition to win governorship election in the state.

PDP had governed the state for 16 years.

Mr Joshua Dariye, a senator who is currently in prison, had governed from 1999 to 2007 while Mr Jonah Jang, governed from 2007 to 2015.

The result by LGAs is as follows:

Jos East

APC: 18, 602

PDP: 7, 994

Kanke

APC: 23, 360

PDP: 22, 831

Langtang North

APC: 18, 979

PDP: 40, 519