Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has taken an early lead in the ongoing collation of results from Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
Results collated from 303 of Osun State’s 332 wards showed Adeleke of the Accord Party leading with 177,572 votes, representing 50.5 per cent of the votes recorded so far.
His closest challenger, the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, polled 158,588 votes, representing 45.1 per cent.
Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress occupied the third position with 5,917 votes as of the time of filing this report.
Collation was still ongoing across the state’s 30 local government areas, with additional results expected from outstanding wards.
The figures available at the collation centre showed that 361,500 voters were accredited out of the 845,100 registered voters in the state, representing a turnout of 42.8 per cent.
A total of 351,500 valid votes had been recorded, while 7,200 ballots were rejected.
The electoral commission had earlier indicated that results from a significant portion of the polling units had been uploaded as the collation process progressed.
Adeleke is seeking a second term in office after moving from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Accord Party ahead of the election. The election was contested by candidates from 14 political parties.
Adeleke’s running mate is Kola Adenusi, while Oyebamiji, a former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority, is contesting alongside Benjamin Adereti.
The final outcome of the election will be announced by the Returning Officer at the state collation centre after all outstanding results have been received and verified.