Bayelsa poll: Dickson floors Sylva…APC kicks

Governor Sierake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been declared winner of the Bayelsa State governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He polled 134,998 votes to emerge winner of the election. Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Timipre Sylva, scored 86,852 votes to place second.

The Returning Officer, Professor Zana Akpagu declared: “Henry Dickson Seriake, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected. This is signed by the returning officer dated this 10th day of January 2016”.

INEC had revised its guidelines for the re-run of the governorship election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

The Commission said all the parties had given their consent to the revised guidelines, which it believed would help to fast-track the exercise on Saturday.

‎Prof Akpagu Sunday night declared Governor Dickson duly elected after collating the results from all the Local Government Areas.

After the supplementary election conducted on Saturday in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, the PDP candidate defeated his arch rival, Timipriye Sylva, whose agent later rejected the outcome of the exercise.
Specifically, in the Southern Ijaw, the PDP candidate floored his main challenger, scoring 23, 081 votes as against Sylva’s 10, 216 vote. INEC had declared the governorship election which was held on December 5, 2015 inconclusive.

The electoral body had anchored its decision on widespread violence and glaring cases of ballot snatching, in the Southern Ijaw hence, the decision to order a re-run election in the area.