Kano’s Ganduje on course to win re-election

Abdullahi Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress is on course to win reelection as governor of Kano State, according to vote tallies announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The returning officer, Bello Shehu, for the supplementary poll held on Saturday has announced results of the rerun, but said he would require one hour to add the results of the first election on March 9, before declaring the winner

Mr Ganduje scored 45,876 votes from the supplementary election as against 10,239 scored by Abba Yusuf of the PDP, according to the announcement by the officer.

At the end of collation after the March 9 election, before the election was declared inconclusive, Mr Yusuf scored 1,014,474 votes to beat Mr Ganduje who had 987,819 votes, leaving a difference of 26,655.

With the result of the supplementary election just announced, Mr Ganduje should now have 1,033,695, while Mr Yusuf should have 1,024,713.

That leaves a margin of 8,982 votes.

The PDP candidate has already rejected the results, warning INEC against declaring Mr Ganduje winner.

Mr Yusuf said doing otherwise will throw the state into “unprecedented political crisis”.

Saturday vote was marred by widespread violence and voter intimidation, observers say.