THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in last Saturday’s governorship election in Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has been declared the winner of the exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Diri’s unassailable victory became apparent after the collation of the election results from all the eight local government areas of the state Monday afternoon.
The state’s Returning Officer, Prof. Faruq Kuta, who resumed the final phase of the collation at about 12:42 pm on Monday, about 48 hours after the election held in the oil-rich South-South State, announced that the exercise had come to an end as he was expected to formally announce the winner of the election thereafter.
Governor Diri won the election in six of the eight local government areas of the state, while his closest challenger and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, cliched only two local government areas.
The local government areas include Kolokuma/Opokuma, Ogbia, Yenegoa, Sagbama, Nembe, Ekeremor, Brass, and Southern Ijaw. Sylva was able to clinch Nembe and Brass.
The PDP candidate won the election with a margin of 65,088 votes ahead of his APC counterpart and others trailing far behind.
While the PDP candidate scored 175, 196 votes, the APC candidate, Sylva got 110, 108, giving the incumbent an edge of 65, 088 votes to secure his second tenure in office.
Eighteen-Eleven Media