Live Updates of Bayelsa 2023 Governorship Election Results and Situation Report can be accessed below.
Today, 11 November 2023, the people of Bayelsa State, South-south Nigeria, will troop out to elect a new governor to govern the southern state for another four-year term.
Newsone reports that the Bayelsa Governorship Election 2023 is taking place in eight (8) Local Government Areas (LGAs). According to the final list of candidates published in October by INEC, 16 candidates are contesting the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria’s electoral umpire, put the number of registered voters for the election at 1,056,862. The commission said 1,017,613 registered voters have collected their PVCs ahead of the election while 39,249 PVCs were not collected.
This online news platform understands that Bayelsa State poses an interesting governorship contest due to the presence of an incumbent governor seeking re-election and a former governor seeking a return to office.
Governor Duoye Diri is seeking a second term under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while Timipre Sylva wants to get a last term on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Both candidates are strong and expected to make a considerable showing in the race.
The Labour Party fielded Eradiri Udengmobofa as its flag bearer. Two of the 16 governorship candidates (12.5 percent) running in Saturday’s election are women.
Profile of the two main candidates
Mr Diri, 63, hails from Sampuo, a community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of the state. He attended Okoro Basic School Sampou before transferring to Rev. Proctor Memorial Primary School Kaima. After graduating from the Government Secondary School in Odi, he obtained a West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) diploma.
Mr Diri earned a Bachelor of Education in Political Science from the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State.
He served as a senator representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District from 2019 to 2020. Mr Diri became governor after the Supreme Court annulled the election of David Lyon, candidate of the APC, who was declared the winner of the gubernatorial poll in November 2019.
The court sacked Mr Lyon barely 24 hours before he was to be sworn into office. The APC candidate was already rehearsing ahead of his inauguration when the news reached him at a stadium.
Reacting to the court ruling at the time, Mr Diri described himself as a “miracle governor”. “We’ve been in the wilderness. We’ve gone through a tortuous and winding road and at the end of the day, God himself delivered us. So, I have christened myself the miracle governor,” he said.
Analysts believe Mr Diri enjoys the support of the PDP members in the state, having won the party’s ticket through consensus in April 2023.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from Bayelsa, has endorsed Mr Diri whom he said deserves a second term because of the “stability” of the state.
“I have been in touch with our governor and I believe he should be encouraged to do his eight years. He has been able to stabilise the state.
“Let us find a standard way of doing things. We cannot kill ourselves; we do not want crisis,” Mr Jonathan told the PDP Bayelsa National Governorship Campaign Council and other party leaders who visited him at his country home on Tuesday.
It is unclear what electoral fortune could come out of Mr Jonathan’s endorsement of Mr Diri.
Mr Sylva was born in Brass in 1964. He is from Brass in eastern Bayelsa State.
He was elected and sworn into office as executive governor of the state in April 2007. Mr Sylva served for about a year until the election was nullified, and a rerun declared. He won the rerun and was sworn in again on May 24, 2008, serving four more years.
Mr Sylva has become a household name in the politics of Bayelsa State. He is the immediate past minister of state for petroleum resources.
Before his first term as a governor and minister, Mr Sylva won a seat in the House of Assembly Election representing Brass constituency in old Rivers State in 1992. At the time, he was the youngest of all the members of the House of Assembly.
Mr Sylva is seeking a second term in the 11 November election.
Earlier last month, a federal high court in Abuja disqualified Mr Sylva from contesting Saturday’s election.
Donatus Okorowo, the presiding judge, held that Mr Sylva, having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as governor of the state, would breach the 1999 constitution if allowed to contest again.
The judge said Mr Sylva is not qualified to run, because if he wins and is sworn in, he would spend more than eight years in office as governor of the state.
However, the ruling of the high court was overturned by an appeal court in Abuja.
In reversing Mr. Sylva’s disqualification, a three-member panel of the appellate court held that the trial court which nullified Mr Sylva’s candidature lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit filed by Demesuoyefa Kolomo, who was not an aspirant in the primaries that produced the former minister as the APC governorship candidate.
Newsone Nigeria is on the ground to give you live updates from the election.
Live reports from Bayelsa state, South-south Nigeria. Check the Results: HERE
4:00 PM: Diri wins his polling unit
Governor Diri of Bayelsa State wins his Sampou/Kalama Ward, PU 004, Kolokuma/Opokuma LG, unit.
APC: 0
ADP: 1
PDP: 218
LP: 0
4:30 PM: Labour Party Candidate loses polling unit
Labour Party candidate in the Bayelsa governorship election Udengs Eradiri has lost his polling unit to the incumbent Governor Douye Diri.
Diri, a candidate of the PDP, polled the majority of votes in unit 05, Ward 10, Yenagoa Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
Diri won 130 votes while Udengs won eight votes.
In the same polling unit, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Timipre Silva gathered 45 votes.
Diri also emerged winner in the Yindimie Compound Square, polling unit 013, Ward 10 in the Sagbama Local Government Area of the state.
He polled 137 votes, while Silva gathered 55.
In Amadikurumor Compound Square, polling unit 014, Ward 10, PDP gathered 195 votes and APC 89.
Eradiri gathered only one vote in unit 014 and no vote in 013.
8:00 AM: Bayelsa: Election materials arrive early in Yenagoa
There was an early arrival of election materials at polling units in Yenagoa.
At the Amarata Ward 6 in Yenagoa Local Government Area, a NAN correspondent reports that activities started at 7:30 a.m. as materials were being distributed to polling units within the ward.
Security officials were already positioned at strategic points within the ward centre.
Similaye Jonah, an ad hoc staff on election duty, said the materials left the Registration Area Centre (RAC) earlier.
As of 8:00 a.m., polling units around the area were awaiting the materials to set up.
The atmosphere around Yenagoa is calm with light vehicular traffic as pedestrians move about unhindered.
Bayelsa: Voting commences in Ward 6 Unit 16 Amarata Yenagoa
Voting has commenced in Ward 6 Unit 16 Amarata, Yenagoa, Bayelsa state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission officials were educating voters on how to cast their votes.
Also, accreditation and voting are ongoing in Unit 39, Ward 13, Otuoke, Ogbia Constituency I.