25th May 2019
In compliance with the Supreme Court Judgment regarding the candidates fielded by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State for the 2019 General Elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the winners of the Governorship, National and State Assembly elections. They are all candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) except Kabiru Hashimu, representing Maru South State Constituency, who was elected under the sponsorship of the National Rescue Movement Party (NRM).
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who made the announcement today at a briefing held at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, the Federal capital Territory (FCT), declared Mr. Bello Mohammed Matawalle and Mr. Mahdi Aliyu Gusau) as winners of the Governorship and Deputy Governorship positions. The state’s three senatorial slots went to Ya’u Sahabi (Zamfara North), Mohammed Hassan (Zamfara Central) and Lawali Hassan Anka (Zamfara West).
Names of successful candidates for the seven House of Representatives and 24 State Assembly positions were also announced. (See Tables 1, 2 and 3).In the pictures below.
Providing the background to the legal process that culminated in the Supreme Court decision on 24th May, Prof. Yakubu recalled that INEC issued the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 on 9th January 2018, a year ahead of schedule. He explained that among other things, the conduct of party primaries was scheduled to take place between 18th August and 7th October 2018.
“Unfortunately,” Prof. Yakubu said, “the APC did not conduct its primaries in Zamfara state within this stipulated time and the Commission duly informed the party that it would not be in the position to present candidates for elections in the state.”
He continued: “Subsequently, various interested parties including the APC itself approached the court over the decision of the Commission. Just before the election, the subsisting court judgment at the time ordered the Commission to include the APC on the ballot for the Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly elections, which the Commission complied with.”
The INEC Chairman further explained that since the elections were completed, a Court of Appeal judgment and the latest Supreme Court judgment have determined that APC did not conduct valid primaries for the said elections.
Arising from that determination, the Supreme Court in its judgment delivered on 24th May said that the votes cast for the APC in all elections in question (Governor, Deputy Governor, three Senatorial, seven Federal and 24 State Constituencies were “wasted” and ordered the Commission to recognize the runners-up as the winners.
Following the judgment, according to Prof. Yakubu, the Commission met in two emergency sessions and took briefings from its lawyers and staff on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment.
He said: “While the legislative elections (Senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections) are straight forward to deal with because they entail first-past-the-post or simple majority of votes, the Governorship election is determined not just by majority votes but also spread in accordance with Section 179 (2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). This means that we had to first discount the votes cast for the APC at the elections and then carefully rework the spread by Local Government Areas based on the new valid votes.”
However, the INEC Chairman also seized the occasion to draw the attention of political parties planning to field candidates in the Kogi and Bayelsa Governorship elections scheduled for 16th November 2019, to the implications of the Supreme Court judgment on the Zamfara matter.
He said: “It is clear that properly conducted party primaries are cardinal to the proper internal functioning of political parties, the electoral process and our democratic system at large. Therefore, political parties must take very seriously the conduct of primaries according to all extant rules, including the monitoring of the processes by INEC to avoid a repeat of the Zamfara experience.
“I want therefore to remind us that the Commission has since 9thApril 2019 issued the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 Bayelsa and Kogi Governorship elections by which party primaries are scheduled to hold between the 2ndand 29thAugust 2019. I appeal to political parties intending to field candidates in the elections to adhere strictly to this and other timelines in the Timetable and Schedule of activities.”
The Governor, Deputy Governor, Senators-elect and Members of the House or Representatives are to receive their Certificates of Return on Monday 27th May at the Commission’s Electoral Institute at 2pm, while Members of the State Assembly will receive theirs from the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Zamfara State, Dr Asmau Maikudi at the INEC State office in Gusau on Friday 31st May at 10am.More photos below.
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