By Dayo Omoogun
Following the Supreme Court judgement of Thursday which nullified the election of David Lyon of the All Progressives Congress due to discrepancies
discovered in the documents submitted by his deputy, the Independent National Electoral Commission this morning confirmed Senator Douye Diri the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner.
Explaining how the Commission arrived at the decision, the INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu said “In compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court, the Commission met this morning and reviewed the result of the election in which 45 political parties contested.
“Without the votes scored by the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose candidates were deemed not to have participated in the election, the total number of lawful and valid votes cast in the election now stands at 146,999.”
“Out of this figure, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored the highest number of lawful votes with 143,172.
“Similarly, the Party has scored more than 25% of the lawful votes cast in all the eight (8) Local Government Areas of the State. Furthermore, the total number of registered voters in places where election was not held or cancelled as a result of sundry violations is 90,822.
“The candidate of the Accord party has the next highest score with 1,339 votes.
“The margin of lead between the candidates of the PDP and the Accord party is 141,833 votes. With this outcome, the election is conclusive at first ballot.
“Consequently, Senator Douye Diri AND Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo of the PDP are hereby declared winners and returned elected as Governor and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State respectively.
This is a fulfilment of the apex court’s order that the Commission should “declare as winner of the Governorship election in Bayelsa State the candidate with the highest number of lawful votes cast with the requisite constitutional (or geographical spread)”.
Meanwhile, the Certificate of Return (CoR) have been issued to Senators Douye Diri and Lawrence Ehwrudjakpor, the new Governor-Elect and Deputy –Governor-Elect respectively immediately, to pave the way for their swearing-in later today in order not to create a vacuum as the tenure of the current Governor Seriake Dickson ends today.