The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has declared Alhaji Ahmed Mannir of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of Saturday’s by-election for the Lere Federal Constituency in Kaduna State.
Declaring the result in Saminaka, the Returning Officer, Prof. Adamu Wada said Mannir scored 34,958 votes to defeat his closest contender, Mr Ibrahim Usman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 16, 271 votes.
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He said Malam Salihi Abdulkarim of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) Scored 295; Suleiman Lere of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) scored 226 votes while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which did not field any candidate, garnered 125 votes.
The election,which was generally peaceful across the constituency.
The by-election into the Lere Federal Constituency was conducted to fill the seat, sequel to the death of the member representing the constituency, Hon. Suleiman Lere, who passed away in April.
Low turnout of voters characterise the Saturday’s by-election in Lere Federal Constituency of Kaduna State
TheLeadng reports that in Saminaka, headquarters of the constituency and it’s environs, people went about their normal activities, just as most polling units had few voters.
Some of the voters interviewed attributed this development to farming activities, as people considered their farms as of topmost priority over the election of their representative.
Others said that a lot of the electorate had lost confidence in the process, and had felt their votes might not count even if they exercised their franchise.
Mr Lazarus Ishaya, a politician, said people were engrossed in farming and had little or no time for voting, especially considering the current economic situation in the country.
He said the turnout might improve later in the day when people might have returned from their farms.
However ,Khadijah Usman, another politican said that loss of confidence in the electoral process was a major factor responsible for the apathy.
According to her, a lot of voters are still skeptical about the relevance of their votes considering their experiences in the past.
The election,which was generally peaceful across the area, started as scheduled, with accreditation and voting taking place simultaneously.
The Card Readers in all the polling units visited were in perfect condition as at the time of filing this report.
