ALL three senatorial districts in Edo State witnessed delayed arrival of voting materials for the state governorship election on Saturday, September 21.    

Yiaga Africa, a civil society organisation (CSO), stated this on its X handle.

“Incidence of delayed arrival of @inecnigeria officials and sensitive materials (ballot of papers and results sheets) across the senatorial districts,” it posted.

The CSO had earlier identified three key factors that would determine the successful conduct of the election, and these factors would measure the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral system.

The factors are the impartiality of security agencies, citizens’s resilience, and the integrity of the INEC.

The key indicators would shape the exercise and further show how Nigeria’s democracy has fared.

The ICIR reported how early morning downpours delayed voting in some parts of Edo Central Senatorial District as voters waited in long queues for the arrival of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who conducted the poll.

The Esan District, consisting of five Local Government Areas (Esan South-East, Igueben, Esan North-East, Esan West, and Esan Central), is key to the election because two major candidates, Asue Ighodalo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Monday Okpepholo of the All Progressive Congress (APC) are from there.

As of 7:50 am, polling units faced delays due to the late arrival of election materials and officials, while rain kept many voters indoors.

The ICIR reporter on the ground noticed some voters at Ivue primary school, Polling unit 7, Ward 2, Uromi waiting to vote in the rain with their umbrellas.

Seventeen political parties are competing for votes in the poll, with three candidates – PDP’s Asue Ighodalo, APC’s Monday Okpebholo, and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) – leading the race.

There are approximately 2.63 million registered voters but only 2.25 million of these have collected their permanent voter’s card (PVC), making them eligible to vote, according to data from the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

By this, the election in Edo would be determined by only 85.57 per cent of registered voters casting their ballot in 4,519 polling units across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.