The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared Bello Matawalle the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the governor-elect of Zamfara State.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, the chairman of the commission Mahmood Yakubu said INEC will present the certificates of return to the PDP candidates on Monday.
INEC had on Friday said it will take final decision on the judgement of the Supreme Court that voided the votes cast in favour of the ruling APC in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections.
“The commission will meet again tomorrow Saturday 25th May 2019 to further deliberate on the issues arising from the said judgement, while the final decision on the matter will be communicated to the public on Monday 27th May 2019,” said a statement by Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee.
But on Saturday, the commission called for a press conference where it announced that candidates of the PDP would be issued with certificates of return on Monday.
The Supreme Court on Friday morning dismissed the appeal of All Progressives Congress, APC, challenging Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from issuing certificates of return to APC candidate, Mukhtar Koguna, and all other APC candidates in Zamfara State.
The Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment held that the party in the state failed to conduct primaries in accordance with the party rules.
In the judgment by Justice Paul Galinji, the Supreme Court therefore voided all votes cast in favour of the APC in the 2019 general elections.
The apex court ordered that the runner-up candidate (who is the candidate of the PDP) be sworn-in if he fulfils the constitutional requirement of getting one quarter of the total votes cast in at least two-third of the local government areas of the state.