The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the provisional results for the 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The Council, in a statement, said it will soon dispatch the results to the various schools and candidates can contact the heads of their schools for their results.

However, the entire results of 48,855 candidates have been withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into various cases of examination malpractices detected during and after the conduct of the examination.

These misconducts include sending foreign materials such as prepared notes, printed materials and mobile phones to the examination hall.

Others are collusion among candidates and planned cheating which occurred with the connivance of some supervisors and school authorities.

The 2019 figure represents an increase from last year where 26,434 results were withheld.