Re-Run Election: Mama Taraba Is Defeated In Taraba

Aisha Al-Hassan Al-Hassan who might have become  the first female governor in Nigeria, was defeated by PDP governorship candidate at the re-run election in Taraba state. 

At the end of collation of votes for Saturday’s supplementary election in the state, Ms. Al-Hassan of the APC got 13,599 votes to trail Darius Ishaku of the PDP, who garnered 53,120 votes.

When the votes earned by both candidates in both the April 11 and April 25 elections are added, Mr. Ishiaku’s cumulative ballots came to 360,318 to the APC’s candidate 275,985.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is about to officially declare the PDP candidate the winner of the election.

At one point Ms. Al-Hassan, fondly known as Mama Taraba by supporters, overtook her main challenger, Mr. Ishaku, as results of the elections in local government areas trickled into the INEC office in Jalingo, the Taraba state capital, on April 11.

This triggered nationwide celebrations by people who thought Ms. Al-Hassan was on her way to dislodging the PDP from the state in a historic win.

But as more votes arrived from remote local governments, it emerged that Ms. Al-Hassan was actually trailing her challenger.

At the end of the INEC’s final collation that day, the election was declared inconclusive because the margin of Mr. Ishaku’s victory was lower than the number of registered voters in areas where elections either were not held or were cancelled due to irregularities.

Yesterday’s supplementary elections were held in those areas, with Mr. Ishaku getting the most votes.