The battle for the Osun State Government House is getting tighter as results from Saturday’s governorship election continue to trickle onto the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV), with Governor Ademola Adeleke and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, popularly known as AMBO, locked in a fierce contest.
As of 5pm, 1,171 polling-unit results had been uploaded to IReV out of the 3,763 polling units across the state, leaving thousands of results still to emerge as collation continues.
The figure represented about 31 per cent of the total polling-unit results expected on the portal. INEC had begun uploading the results shortly after voting ended at polling units across the state.
The emerging results are being closely watched because the election has developed into a major three-way contest involving Adeleke of Accord, Oyebamiji of the APC and African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salam. More than 2.3 million voters were registered for the election, with 3,763 polling units spread across 30 local government areas.
The contest has been particularly significant because of a major political realignment in the days leading to the poll.
Former Osun governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and other prominent members of a PDP faction recently threw their weight behind Oyebamiji, giving the APC campaign a major boost barely days before voters went to the polls.
But one of the first dramatic results from the election has now emerged from Oyinlola’s own polling unit in Okuku, Odo-Otin Local Government Area.
Despite his endorsement of Oyebamiji, Accord’s Adeleke won the polling unit, scoring 125 votes against APC’s 85 votes. ADC polled five votes, while AAC secured two.
SDP, YPP and ZLP each recorded one vote, while several other parties failed to register any vote.
The result sheet showed that 228 voters were accredited, with 220 valid votes cast and eight ballots rejected.
The result, from Court Hall I, Okuku, has added another twist to the already unpredictable contest, particularly because Oyinlola had publicly backed Oyebamiji ahead of the election. The result has since attracted attention as voters await the outcome from the wider Odo-Otin area and other battleground local governments.
Meanwhile, INEC’s IReV uploads are expected to increase as polling-unit results are transmitted and the formal collation process progresses.
Importantly, the number of results uploaded to IReV should not be mistaken for the candidates’ running vote totals. IReV is primarily a public viewing platform for polling-unit result sheets; the official winner will emerge through INEC’s prescribed collation process.
With only a portion of the polling-unit results available at the 5pm mark, the race remains wide open, setting the stage for a tense wait as more figures emerge from across Osun.
