INEC Cancels Results in Some Polling Units in Ife Central, Osun State

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has canceled results from some polling units in Osun State. This was due to over-voting and other issues. Election observers from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) made this known on Saturday.

Around 9:33 p.m., a CJID observer reported that the result from Polling Unit 11 in Registration Area 9 (Iremo V), Ife Central Local Government Area, was canceled because of alleged over-voting. This happened during the collation of results at the LGA collation center at Oluorogbo High School.

The observer also reported at about 10:25 p.m. that the result from Polling Unit 17 in Registration Area 4 (Ilare IV), also in Ife Central LGA, was canceled for the same reason.

The final result announced at the Ife Central LGA collation center at about 10:43 p.m. showed that 39,330 votes were cast from 39,990 accredited voters. Out of these votes, 38,380 were valid while 950 were rejected.

The Accord Party (A) received 21,171 votes and became the leading party in the LGA. The All Progressives Congress (APC) got 15,913 votes. Other parties had the following votes: AA, 137 votes; AAC, 90; ADC, 747; ADP, 86; APGA, 71; APM, three; BP, eight; NNPP, five; PRP, three; SDP, 12; YPP, 25; and ZLP, 102. The APP did not get any votes.

There were 122,454 registered voters in the LGA, with 39,990 accredited to vote. Meanwhile, the CJID observer reported that no voting took place at Polling Unit 14. Voters refused to participate, saying there was not enough ballot papers.

"Election wasn’t conducted at PU 14 because the electorates refused to vote. The electorates claimed there was shortage of ballot papers," the observer said.

The observer said that while the number of ballot papers supplied was less than the number of registered voters at the polling unit, it was more than the number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected. Efforts by the Electoral Officer and the Resident Electoral Commissioner to fix the issue did not work.

Results from the 30 local government areas of Osun State are being announced at their respective LGA collation centers. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that voting started at about 8:30 a.m. in all polling units across the 30 local government areas in the state.

Voter turnout was impressive in some LGAs, but low in others. PREMIUM TIMES correspondents also reported several cases of vote trading at polling units around the state. Fifteen political parties are in the election. Results from polling units suggest a close contest between the Accord Party candidate and the incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke, along with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji.

INEC states that Osun State has 2,399,233 registered voters. Of these, 1,906,390 collected their PVCs and were eligible to vote across 332 wards and 30 local government areas in the state.