Professor Mahmood, Yakubu, INEC boss

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said that the refusal of some political party agents to sign the Edo governorship election result sheet did not invalidate the poll.

INEC National Commissioner in Charge of Publicity, Prince Solomon Soyebi, stated this in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Benin.

Soyebi said that the validity of an election was stipulated in the Electoral  Act and Election Guidelines.

He said that the concluded Edo election was in line with the Electoral Act.

“The refusal of any party agents to sign the result sheet does not in any way invalidate the declared result of the election,” Soyebi said.

The agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that of the Young Democratic Party had refused to sign the result sheet of the Edo governorship election.

He commended the people of Edo for their peaceful conduct that allowed the election to be peaceful and concluded in one ballot.

“This is one of the few elections that we have conducted with minimum violence,” he said.

Soyebi said that the people of Edo had set the pace for peaceful election and mass turnout of voters in the country.

He expressed hope that such standard would be sustained as well as impact on future elections.

The INEC commissioner said high number of counseled votes and the inability to use the card readers remained one of the major changes in the election.

He, however, said that INEC would build on the success recorded in Edo as well as invest more in voter education to ensure the success of Ondo election scheduled for Nov. 28.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that INEC had declared Mr Godwin Obaseki of the APC as winner of the election, who polled 319,483 votes to defeat Mr Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the PDP, who scored 253,173 votes.(NAN)