The failure to vote or an abstention has the same effect as a vote against the proposed combination.

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Chukwu's failure to vote means that Okocha, who narrowly missed out on the award to Morocco's Mustapha Hadji in 1998, has lost five valuable points in the voting.

BBC: SPORT | Football | African | Okocha suffers award setback

If that were the case, the conservatives would fail to make the second round of the presidential vote, mirroring the Socialists' failure to reach the run-off in 2002.

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ITAM, a university in Mexico City, a failure by the court to declare the vote valid by the September 6th deadline would be tantamount to annulling the election.

ECONOMIST: Mexico's elections

Mr Jones has written to Mr Osborne warning him that a failure to implement tax and borrowing powers for Wales could make a yes vote in the Scottish independence referendum more likely.

BBC: Wales politics

Mr Musyoka said the failure of the electronic results system earlier this week had allowed the vote to be rigged.

BBC: Kenya election: Raila Odinga camp says vote 'doctored'