THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has uploaded over 90 per cent of the results of the Edo State governorship election it conducted on Saturday, September, 21 on its result viewing portal (IReV)
This is in fulfillment of the organisation’s vow that it would transmit all the election results to the IReV.
As of 10 pm on Saturday, results of 4,316 out of the 4,519 polling units had been successfully transmitted on the portal.
The ICIR reported that voting commenced late in some local government areas of the state following heavy downpours in the early hours and other undisclosed reasons that caused INEC officials to arrive late at polling centres.
The election umpire eventually announced an extension of the poll and said all voters who arrived at polling units by 2:30 pm should be allowed to vote.
Many residents and election observers described the election as very peaceful with pockets of incidents of disruption and voting buying.
The ICIR reported how officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) arrested political thugs on the eve of the election.
The operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also arrested vote buyers during the poll.
Seventeen political parties competed 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 collected their permanent voter’s card (PVC), making them eligible to vote, according to data from INEC.
By this, the election will be determined by only 85.57 per cent of registered voters in 4,519 polling units across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].