Simon Lalong re-elected as Plateau state governor

The governor of Plateau state, Simon Lalong has been declared the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

The governor, who contested under the All Progressive Congress (APC), secured a second term mandate by defeating his opponent Jeremiah Useni of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The state’s Returning Officer who is also the vice chancellor of Benue state University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Richard Kimbir, made the announcement on Sunday at exactly 4:00 a.m, at the Independent Electoral Commission Headquarters (INEC) in Jos Plateau state.

The electoral commission, INEC, had two weeks ago declared the state’s governorship election inconclusive as the margin of victory was less than the cancelled votes.

The supplementary elections were held on Saturday in 40 polling units across nine local governments.

While declaring the result, the returning officer said Mr Lalong having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner.

He polled 595,582 votes while Mr Useni scored 546,813 votes.

The Action Democratic Party (ADP) candidate, Jonathan Temlong, came third with 4,670 votes

Below are the details of the declared results.

PLATEAU STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION FINAL RESULT

TOTAL VALID VOTES: 1159954

TOTAL VOTES CAST: 1,176142

TOTAL REJECTED VOTES: 16188

ABP: 1071
AD: 229
ADC: 1627
ADP: 4,670
ANN: 2,273
APC: 595,582
APGA: 394
CAP: 31
DA: 61
DPC: 101
FRESH: 179
GPN: 428
JNPP: 120
LP: 178
MPN: 233
NRN: 538
PDC: 1317
PDP: 546,813
PPC: 1461
PPN: 115
PT: 63
SDP: 2382
UPC: 34
UPP: 54