District 9 councilman Peter Murphy says he'll sue before losing the election without a runoff.
"The official results shows that no candidate got 50 percent of the vote or greater. That is the official result of the election as certified by the election commission and is binding on all who participated," said Murphy.
Murphy held a press conference announcing he is demanding the election commission hold a runoff.
He says if they do not confirm it by 5:00 p-m Tuesday, he'll seek legal action.
Murphy said, "I have several voters who have already expressed interest in suing. That's not in the taxpayer's interest. It's not in the interest of the people of district nine. What is in our interest is that the election commission do it's job, the staff, and schedule the run off election."
Opponent Yusuf Hakeem reacted to Murphy's announcement.
"If we talk about going to court, we are prepared for that we have attorneys and if we have to move forward in that direction we will," Hakeem said.
The commission declared Hakeem the winner after throwing out two write in votes that were blank and giving him the majority.
Murphy says that should not have been done.
He said, there are 211 write in votes in the city election. There were 67 for the office of Mayor, there are 57 in district 6, there are 50 in district 5. None of those ballots were examined to see what they said and the people of district 9 deserve to have their votes counted in the same way as everyone else."
Hakeem said he is not interested in a runoff since he believes he's already the rightful winner.
"I would be disappointed because it's like setting different rules for different people. If the law says I've won that should be the end of it," said Hakeem.
