BEVERLY HILLS, September 29, (THEWILL) – Even before the finally tally of Wednesday’s governorship election in Edo state, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the results of the election, basing their action on an allegation that the results were “fabricated and a pre-determined” by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the Edo State government.
The party rejected the results in a press conference addressed by its Chairman in the state, Mr Dan Orbih, on Thursday in Benin, the state capital. The press conference was also attended the party’s governorship candidate in the election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
At a time INEC was still announcing results of the poll from various local government areas of the state, Orbih said that the results as they were being announced by the INEC, were at a complete variance with what the party got from it agents and independent observers.
He alleged that the two-week extension of the poll by the electoral body was to allow for more time to perfect the manipulation of the process.
According to him, “You will recall that our state Publicity Secretary had briefed the press less than 48 hours to the elections on what is playing out now.
“If you go by the results that were announced at the polling units and wards across the state, it shows that PDP would have won by over 30,000 votes.
“What INEC is announcing is clearly different from what we got from our agents and independent observers in the 192 wards and over 2,000 units across the state.
“We are rejecting these results as they were being announced by INEC and we are coming out early enough to make this known.”
The PDP chairman stated that the cancellation of some results on the basis of failed card reader was part of a deliberate plan to also manipulate the poll, alleging that the areas were results were canceled were stronghold of the PDP.
“I wonder what the Incident Form is for. Voters should not be made to suffer unduly for the inefficiency of card readers,” he said.
He said the results as were being announced by INEC, were clearly at variance with the widely acclaimed voter- turnout that was also acknowledged by the electoral umpire itself.
Also speaking, the PDP governorship candidate said he aligned himself with the position of the party, adding that “The results are not a true reflection of what happened in the field” and that “INEC only played a script written by the Government of Edo”.
