The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced Christopher Maikalangu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the Abuja Municipal Area Council chairmanship election.
The declaration was made by the AMAC collation officer, Andrew Abue, who confirmed that the incumbent chairman secured the highest number of votes in the poll.
According to him, Maikalangu polled 40,295 votes out of a total of 62,861 valid votes cast. The candidate of the African Democratic Congress came second with 12,109 votes, while the Peoples Democratic Party scored 3,398 votes.
Abue also disclosed that 2,336 votes were rejected. He said the total number of votes cast stood at 65,197, while accredited voters were 65,676 out of 837,338 registered voters.
“That Maikalangu of the APC, having certified the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Abue said.
Other parties that participated in the election recorded lower figures. Candidates of parties such as the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Social Democratic Party, and Young Progressives Party were among those who trailed behind in the results announced.
Speaking after the announcement, the APC collation agent, Gambo Babale, described the exercise as credible and transparent.
“INEC has done so well. We’ve seen the processes across all the polling units, the ward coalition centres and here at AMAC area council coalition centre. Everything was done perfectly well.
“They’ve tried. They’ve done everything humanly possible. I believe this high level of transparency occurred in all the coalition’s exercise that took place in AMAC.
“PDP won about two ward councillors, Karu and Karishi. That is to tell you the level of transparency that happens in this election,” he said.
He congratulated the winner and expressed confidence that the victory would translate into more benefits for residents of AMAC. He also noted that the outcome signals readiness for future electoral contests.
Similarly, the YPP ward collation agent, Abdullahi Ibrahim, commended the conduct of the process and extended congratulations to the winner.
Result sheets for the election were endorsed by agents of several political parties present at the collation centre, including ADC, APC, APGA, YPP, and NNPP.
