The Benue State governorship election held on Saturday, March 9, 2019, has been declared inconclusive.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC gave the verdict on Monday at its head office in Makurdi, Benue State.
The PDP’s Ortom polled a total of 410,576 votes while Jime of the APC recorded 329,022 votes.
The margin between them is therefore 81,554 votes while the number of votes in the wards cancelled were 121,019
According to the returning officer, Sabastian Maimako, a winner could not be declared because the number of votes cancelled is higher than the margin of win between votes recorded by the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Samuel Ortom, and that of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Emmanuel Jime.
He announced that the number of registered votes in the state were 2,480,131, accredited voters are 816,969, total valid votes 790,102, total votes cast was 804,662 while rejected votes were 14,560 votes.
He has however stated that INEC will conduct a supplementary election in 21 days.