THE candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ondo State governorship election conducted on Saturday, November 16, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, is leading with a wide margin in the votes collated so far.
Early results from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) show Aiyedatiwa winning all 15 local government areas (LGAs) declared so far.
Aiyedatiwa has amassed a total of 301,113 votes, while his closest rival, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), AGboola Ajayi, garnered 97,051 votes.
In Ile-Oluji Oke-Igbo, the state incumbent governor (Aiyedatiwa) polled an overwhelming 16,600 votes, far ahead of Ajayi, who secured 4,442 votes. In Idanre LGA, Aiyedatiwa secured 9,114 votes, narrowly edging out the PDP candidate, who garnered 8,940 votes.
The APC extended its lead to larger LGAs like Akure South, with Aiyedatiwa amassing 32,969 votes, dwarfing PDP’s 17,926 votes. In Owo, another large LGA, the APC candidate recorded 31,914 votes compared to the PDP’s 4,740 votes.
Other LGAs where results have so far been announced, with Aiyedatuwa leading are Ose, Akure North, Okitipupa, Akoko North-East, Ifedore, Akoko South-West, Akoko South-East, Akoko North-West, Ondo East, Ondo West, Irele.
The remaining three LGA areas that are yet to be announced, are Ilaje, Odigbo, and Ese-Odo.
Aiyedatiwa is from Ilaje LGA, while Ajayi is from Ese-Odo LGA.
However, despite the huge lead by Aiyedatiwa, voter turnout appeared low relative to the number of registered voters.
For example, in Akure South, only 54,670 voters were accredited out of 314,709 registered voters. A similar margin was observed in Ose, where just 21,661 voters participated, representing a fraction of the 78,307 registered voters.
Also in Akoko North-West Local Government, 84,908 voters registered for the election but only 31,263 were accredited during the election. This was also the same situation in Akoko South-East, where 41,978 votes were registered for the election but only 15,150 were accredited.
INEC’s data showed that 2,053,061 eligible voters registered for permanent voter cards (PVCs) but only 1,757,205 of those who registered collected the PVCs.
This means that 85.6 per cent of registered voters were eligible to participate in the election, conducted across 3,933 polling units in the state’s 18 local government areas.
The ICIR reported that Aiyedatiwa while speaking with journalists after casting his vote, expressed optimism that many of his supporters would turn out at the polls to cast their votes for his party.
The governor also stated that he was at an advantage to win the election having been in office since December 2023.
“With what we have done for the last 10 months, the populace, the voters, as I said, they know who they want,” the governor said.
“I believe I’m in an advantaged position to win this election because of the work that I have done in the last 10 months since I assumed office as the governor of the state. We traversed the entire 18 local governments; and visited communities all across,” he added.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M