INCUMBENT governor of Anambra State and candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr. Peter Obi, was, on Sunday, declared the winner

of the state governorship election conducted on Saturday, having polled  97,843 (or 32.48 per cent) out of the 301, 232 total votes cast.

The candidate of the Action Congress (AC) and former governor of the state, Dr. Chris Ngige, came second with a total vote of 60,240, while Professor Chukwuma Soludo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 59,355 votes to emerge third.

The result, declared by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Chief Josiah Uwazuruonye, at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Awka, on Sunday morning, indicated that out of the total votes cast, 16,685 were rejected while 284, 547 were valid.

Out of this, Dr. Andy Uba of the Labour Party (LP) polled 26,106; Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) 20, 777 and Mrs. Uche Lilian Ekwunife of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) polled 9, 595,

Ralph Nwosu of African Democratic Congress (ADC) 1,626; Mr Mike Nwafor of African Liberation Party (ALP) 1,008; Michael Ejezie of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) 1,432; Emmanuel Nwalunor, African Redemption Party (ARP) 450; Onwugbufor Valentine, Better Nigeria Peoples Party (BNPP) 1,422; Chukwuemeka Kenneth, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) 336;  Geoff Onyejegbo, CPN 126 and Egonu Richmond Olisa, Convention Peoples Party (CPP) had 465 votes.

Others are Mrs. Njideka Anyadike, Nigerian Advanced Party (NAP) 264; Kenneth Nwuba, National Conscience Party (NCP) 105; Chijioke Ndubuisi, National Democratic Party (NDP) 382; Christoph Nwegbu, New Nigerian Democratic Party (NNDP) 163; Okoye George Ike, (NMPP) 615; Patrick Egolum, New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) 209; Chief Victor Anigbata, Nigerian Social Democratic Party (NSDP) 261; Eugene Ezekwueche, PMP 903; Benjamin Obidigbo, RPN 234; Godson Okoye, UDP 473 while Okoli Nwachukwu, United Nigerian Peoples Party (UNPP) got  157 votes.

However, there was a mild drama at the venue of the declaration of the results, when it was discovered that the electoral officer for Idemili South, Dr. Able Egbunam, had inflated the votes ascribed to the AC by a total of 10, 000 votes.

The electoral officer, who had earlier announced the figure, accepted the error when the APGA agent pointed out that it was a mistake. However, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) announced that though the electoral officer had admitted the mistake, he (REC) was handicapped to effect any change because of the stipulation of the Section 69 C of the Electoral Act and said that the APGA agent should bring its petition to INEC and present it at the tribunal.

Section 69C of the Electoral Act says: “The decision of the Returning Officer on any question arising from or relating to (a) - unmarked ballot paper (b) rejected ballot paper and (c) Declaration of scores of candidates and the return of a candidate, shall be final, subject to review by a tribunal or court in an election petition proceedings under this Act.”

The error was apparently later resolved when the total votes tally of AC from the local government was reduced by 19, 000 votes in the final result announced.

In its initial reaction to the results of the poll, the PDP blamed the defeat of its candidate, Professor Soludo, on the internal crisis bedevilling the party in Anambra State, as it observed that ordinarily, the party would have won the election.

According to the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, “it was sad that the party had to lose the election the way we did.”

He said: “As a political party, we did everything to give maximum support to our candidate, Professor Soludo, but it appears that the disunity among our members in Anambra State is responsible because the state is basically a PDP state.

“There were many lapses that some members in Anambra State were dissatisfied with. We will now study the situation before releasing our final position but we commend Professor Soludo for his efforts and urge him and our supporters in the state to remain calm and mobilise for the challenges ahead.

“It is a lesson for our supporters nationwide that wherever we lose focus, we will have problems,” the PDP spokesman declared.

In his reaction to the results of the election, Chief Victor Umeh, National Chairman of APGA, said the party was happy that its involvement in the struggle to ensure a free and fair election in the country and in the state had yielded dividend, saying Nigeria was going to move on from this election to greater glory.

According to him, “there is no way we can succeed as a country if we continue to deny the people their inalienable right to elect leaders of their choice, and this is the beauty of democracy.”

Chief Umeh said: “INEC has done very well, not just because we have won, but because on Saturday, we were allowed to vote. An Anambra State that had very traumatic experiences in the past elections, yesterday did not record any incident of people writing election results in their private homes and those results finding their ways to INEC headquarters for declaration. So, if INEC keeps it this way, we will get out of the woods.”

The APGA chairman also commended the Nigeria Police, saying: “Before this election on Saturday, Anambra State was invaded by thugs imported by desperate candidates in the election and it was an uphill task to maintain peace.

“But with the level of security provided by the Nigeria Police, the thugs took to their heels. That was why the election was peaceful. So, I thank the Nigeria Police while thanking INEC for having this disposition at this time to allow the people of Anambra State to elect a governor of their choice.”

The candidate of the PPA, Chief (Mrs.) Ekwunife, when contacted on the telephone, said she would react to the election results at a later time.

ADC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Anayo Arinze, who was also the coordinator of the campaign organisation of Chief Ralph Nwosu, said it would not accept the results of the election.

According to Chief Arinze, “the results are not acceptable to us because we forewarned INEC concerning certain irregularities that were observed on Saturday and we told them to correct those anomalies.”

The ADC said: “There were foreign names in our register of voters and we said you should correct it. When you have zero per cent in almost 50 per cent of the polling units that are supposed to be existing in Anambra State, this is not acceptable.”

Addressing a press conference after the declaration of the results, the Anambra 2010 Election Monitoring and Observation Board said despite all the inadequacies, the election was generally peaceful, free and fair.

The chairman of the board, Mr. Ikeazor Akariwe, commended the police, the INEC and the people of the state, saying the election represented “a watershed in the history of elections in Nigeria.”