The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State, David Lyon, has emerged winner of the governorship election held on Saturday, November 16, 2019.
The Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Faraday Orunmuwese, announced this on Monday, November 18.
Lyon, who won in six of the state’s eight local government areas, defeated his closest rival, Senator Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Diri won in two local governments and Lyon’s victory marks the first time the PDP would lose a governorship election in the state since the nation returned to democracy in 1999.
Lyon polled a total of 352,552 votes to defeat his closest rival Diri, who scored 143,172 votes.
Residents of Bayelsa had taken to various polling units in their respective wards to cast their ballots in a bid to elect a new governor to succeed Mr Seriake Dickson who is about to complete his second term as governor of the state.
Governor Dickson had supported Mr Diri to succeed him in his bid to ensure the PDP continues to rule in Bayelsa, following the exit of the state’s former governor and present Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, from office in 2012.
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He was, however, unable to achieve this as Diri suffered defeat to his APC rival with a difference of over 180,000 votes.
Meanwhile, the election was characterised with reports of violence and ballot snatching in some areas while some wards were merged together as a result of flooding.
The collation of results of the election across the eight local government areas of the state began on Sunday afternoon and lasted until the early hours of Monday.
Of the first six LGAs whose results were collated, Lyon dominated the election with a difference of over 80,000 votes and extended the lead by an additional 100,000 votes after the results of the remaining two local governments were collated.
The Governor-elect won in six LGAs while his PDP rival claimed the remaining two LGAs.
Lyon won in Brass, Ekeremor, Nembe, Ogbia, Southern Ijaw, and Yenagoa LGAs while Diri won in Kolokuma/Opokuma and Sagbama LGAs.
Declaring the APC candidate as the winner, Professor Orunmuwese explained that a total of 505,884 votes were cast, out of which 499,551 were counted as valid votes.
He added that a total of 922,562 voters registered for the election but 517,883 voters were accredited.
Yetunde Adegoke
