The Anambra State governorship election has come to an end and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the winner.
The election, which began on Saturday, has concluded with INEC declaring the incumbent governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, as the winner.
According to the results announced by INEC in the early hours of Sunday, Soludo won by a landslide in the 21 local government areas of the South-East state.
The State Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Omoregie Edoba, declares Soludo as the winner of the exercise after the collation of results from the local government areas of the State where the election was held.
Soludo, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), secured 422,664 votes to trounce his closest rival, the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Nicholas Ukachukwu, who polled 99,445 votes.
Paul Chukwuma of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) came third with 37,753 votes, while John Nwosu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) scored 8,208 votes.
George Moghalu of the Labour Party (LP) and Jude Ezenwafor of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) scored 10,576 votes and 1,401 votes, respectively.
Anambra REC dismisses vote-buying claims
Meanwhile, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Anambra State, Queen Elizabeth Agwu, has dismissed claims of vote-buying during Saturday’s governorship election.
Agwu made the clarification during an interview on Channels Television’s flagship programme, News at 10, on Saturday, asking anyone making such claims to present credible evidence.
“When the two strongest candidates went to vote, they mentioned vote-buying. But like I said during voter education, anyone with such information should provide facts and figures.
“Vote-buying is a very serious offence and a legislative matter. If you want to accuse someone, give us evidence. You can’t just go on television and say there’s vote-buying everywhere without mentioning one place,” she said.
There were reports of delayed material distribution, intimidation, and vote-buying in some areas, but the state REC insisted no such did not reach her situation room.
“For us who were in the situation room, I didn’t go to the field. I couldn’t have gone. I didn’t get information about the late arrival of materials, and I was monitoring all through. There was no report of delay anywhere,” she said.
The REC said neither INEC staff nor observers, both local and international, reported any verified incidents of vote-buying.
“None of our staff or observers told me they saw any area where there was vote-buying. So, to me, it’s a rumour, and rumours don’t thrive with me,” she declared.
On voter turnout, Agwu declined to make early conclusions, stressing that final figures would be determined after collation.
“I cannot talk of low voter turnout when the results are not fully collated. We’ll calculate turnout based on the results on ground. From what we saw in the situation room, there was heavy turnout in the early hours,” she explained.
She commended the overall process, noting that INEC’s logistics and security deployment were effective.
“It was a very good outing. INEC deployed early in nearly all polling units. There was adequate security, the BVAS worked well, and voters turned out en masse,” she said.
