The Bayelsa State Governor and candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson, was in the lead as at 2am on Sunday morning in the supplementary governorship election of the state.
According to official results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Dickson was leading in three out of the four local government areas which results were available before the adjournment was announced.
The INEC said results announcement would resume at 11am on Sunday.
The Returning Officer for the election, Zana Akpagu, announced the adjournment of the results collation.
Officials of the electoral body that handled elections in Brass, Yenagoa, Sagbama and Ogbia Local Government Areas announced the results in the early hours of Sunday (today) – between 12:00am and 2:00am local time.
After the results from Ogbia were announced the electoral body said it would take a break and reconvene in the morning by 11:00am.
Results are expected from Southern Ijaw and some other polling units in two other local government areas – Kolokuma/Opokuma and Nembe – to conclude the election that was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the initial poll on December 5.
The Southern Ijaw Local Government Election was cancelled on the December 7, 2015, due to violence, ballot box snatching and stuffing, harassment and abduction of electoral officials.
Southern Ijaw Local Government has a total of 120, 827 registered voters, 425 Polling Units and five Voting Points.
Thirty-eight thousand registered voters in 102 Polling Units across six Local Governments – Brass, Ekeremor, Nembe, Sagbama, Yenagoa and Ogbia – also participate in the election to conclude the Bayelsa State governorship election earlier scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2015.
During the collation, some party agents raised issues with the process in Brass Local Government Area, citing cases of malpractices and irregularities.
A party agent called for the cancellation of the election in Brass.
Responding to issues raised, the Returning Officer said all complaints should be forwarded to the commission’s office, promising that they would be addressed accordingly.
For the four local government areas, which results had been announced, the All Progressives Congress, with former Governor Timipre Sylva as candidate, scored 448 votes in Yenagoa Local Government Area, while Dickson got 839 votes.
Sylva took Brass Local Government Area with 1,679 votes, while the PDP had only five votes.
For Sagbama Local Government Area, the APC scored 119 votes as against 180 for the PDP.
In Ogbia Local Government Area, the PDP polled 1,290 votes, while APC scored 139 votes.
In the initial election conducted on December 5, 2015, the PDP had established over 30,000 votes lead.