20110108
africanews

Former Governor of Nigeria's Delta State and candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan was declared winner of the state governorship re-run election held on Thursday.

The PDP candidate had been removed from office in November 2010, following an Appeal Court ruling which upheld allegations of fraud in the previous vote in 2007.

But, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission INEC announced Uduaghan as winner of the re-run election on Friday evening with an almost 2:1 margin.

Uduaghan was said to have polled over 270,000 votes to defeat his closest challenger from the Democratic Peoples Party, Dr. Great Ogboru. Ogboru had garnered a little over 138,000 to place second in the vote.

The Nation reports that a total of 450,376 votes were cast in the election with 17,064 votes reportedly rejected by INEC for alleged irregularities in the oil-rich state.

A break down of the results showed Uduaghan won in 14 of the 25 local government areas of the state, while Ogboru won in 11.

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While supporters of the runner-up Great Ogboru rejected the results, saying the election was rigged, the Forum for Justice and Human Rights Defence, described the election as peaceful.

"Reports reaching us from out 25 LGA coordinators indicate that the governorship re-run election in Delta State was generally peaceful except for some incidents of ballot snatching and late voting in parts of Udu, Sapele, Uvwie and Warri South LGA,” the Nation quoted its National Coordinator, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi as saying.

"Voters were generally happy that for the first time in 11 years, they voted peacefully and that their votes would count. Kudos to Prof. Attahiru Jega-led INEC," he added.