The electoral commission on Sunday declared the Osun State governorship election “inconclusive.” It has however set Thursday September 27, 2018 for a rerun elections in some polling units where votes were voided.
According to Joseph Fuwape, the presiding officer of the election, at the end of the collation of votes, the PDP candidate, Ademola Adeleke, won majority votes of about 254,698 votes while Gboyega Oyetola of the APC came a close second with 254,345 votes. Both leading candidates had a difference of about 354 votes.
The presiding officer spoke at the at the INEC headquarters in Oshogbo.
The decision for the rerun was arrived at due to irregularities which marred the election at some polling units in Ife North, Ife South and Orolu local government areas, including cases of card reader malfunctioning, ballot box snatching, among others.
These irregularities resulted in the cancellation of 3,498 votes recorded in the affected polling units.
Quoting INEC’s Standing Rules at the commission’s headquarters in Osogbo, the state capital, the Returning Officer and Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof Joseph Fowape, said since the margin between the two leading candidates was lower than the registered cancelled votes, the election had to be declared inconclusive.
