By DADA AYOKHAI
The just concluded supplementary election across the country might have as well brought to a fitting end the tussle for political power.
Attention will now shift to the colour and the composition of the two arms of the hallowed chambers even as the race for the election of the principal officers to steer the affairs of the 10th National Assembly hots up among the various contenders .
By convention, the principal officers of the lower and upper chambers are chosen from the pool of returning members. These are classified as ranking members of Congress.
In Edo State, the two dominant political parties will be engaged in stocktaking after the intense and bitter rivalry which pervaded the presidential and national Assembly election.
The ruling PDP was the greatest loser. For the first time since 1999, the PDP failed to record any major feat. The partys candidates for the Senate and the House of Reps seats lost woefully and, like icing on the cake, the presidential standard bearer, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku came third was also unable to secure the mandatory 25 percent of votes cast in that election.
From nowhere, the Labour Party stole the show while the opposition APC bared its fang mostly in its stronghold, the Edo North senatorial district, and also recorded a few marginal wins outside of its Edo North fortress.
For the Senate, the APC won two seats from Edo North and Edo Central respectively while the LP nicked the coveted Edo South diadem.
As for the House of Reps, out of the available nine slots, the APC got six, the LP secured two and the PDP with a consolatory seat. A breakdown shows that the APC secured two House of Reps seats in Edo South, one in Edo Central and the remaining three from the Edo North. The PDP, on the other hand, got its sole House of Reps seat in Edo Central.
In the case of the APC, the party is lucky in the sense that three of the House of Reps members are returning members. They are Hon. Dennis Idahosa from the Ovia federal constituency and Prof Julius Ihonvbere from the Owan federal constituency, both of whom are returning to the green chamber for the second time. The third person is Hon. Peter Akpatason from the Akoko Edo federal constituency who is a fourth-timer in the House.
As far as Edo politics are concerned in the next dispensation, and given the political realities on the ground, it is obvious that the APC will certainly call the shots from Abuja.
