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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, as the winner of Saturday’s presidential election in Katsina State.
The Returning officer for the state, Professor Muazu Abubakar Gusau, announced the results around 3:20am on Monday morning.
He said the total number of registered voters in the state was 3,516,719 while the total number of accredited voters was put at 1,097,663.
Gusau gave the numbers of polls garnered by the 18 political parties that participated in the election as follows;
A—255
AA—523
AAC—234
ADC—–1405
ADP—1798
APC—-482,283
APGA—–1391
APM—–603
APP—269
BP—-307
LP—-6376
NNPP—-69386
NRM—1053
PDP—-489045
PRP—-1986
SDP—339
YPP—1029
ZLP—371
Total Valid Votes —-1,058,673
Rejected votes—-32,514
Total votes cast—-1,091,187.
The returning officer also disclosed that votes were cancelled in some parts of the state due to over-voting, violence, thuggery and insecurity.
The affected areas include Baure (One polling unit); Danmusa( Two polling units); Daura ( One polling unit); Dutsinma ( One polling unit); Funtua (Three polling units); Kafur ( Twelve polling units); Kankara ( One polling unit); Katsina( Seven polling units); Kurfi (One polling unit) and Kusada ( One polling unit).
Others were Maiadua ( One polling unit); Malumfashi ( 10 polling units); Mashi ( 10 polling units); Sabuwa ( One polling unit) and Safana (10 polling units).
Gusau gave the total number of votes cancelled because of the reasons he earlier stated as 51,310.