Is INEC’s declaration of Osun guber election as inconclusive constitutional?

The people of Osun State went to the polls on Saturday 22nd September, 2018 to elect their next governor. Observers reported that the election was generally peaceful and free and fair.

The PDP candidate for the election, Sen. Ademola Adeleke got the highest number of votes with 254,698 votes and was closely followed by the APC candidate, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, who scored 254,345 votes.

Even though the PDP candidate won by simple majority and got up to 25% of the votes in 2/3 of the local governments in the state (the requirement by the Nigerian constitution to win the election), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive. The reason given was that the number of cancelled votes due to irregularities (3498 in 7 polling units) was greater than the margin between the two leading candidates, hence the decision to declare the election inconclusive as stipulated by the rules of the INEC in such cases.

Now, the question on the lips of many Nigerians, both learned and “unlearned” is this …

Is the declaration of this election as inconclusive constitutional?