Osun Rerun: Voting in Progress

Voting is currently in progress in the seven polling units where the Independent National Electoral Commission ordered a rerun of the Osun governorship election.

The affected polling units are in Orolu Local Government Area (three units), Ife South (two units), Ife North (one unit) and Osogbo (one unit).

Though there are 48 political parties on the ballot, the ongoing election is a straight fight between Peoples Democratic Party’s Ademola Adeleke and All Progressives Party’s Gboyega Oyetola, the two candidates with the highest number of votes.

While Adeleke polled 254,698 votes, his closest rival, Oyetola, scored 254,345 votes.

The election was declared inconclusive and a rerun was ordered because the 353-votes difference between Adeleke and Oyetola were less than the 3,498 cancelled votes.

The candidates are currently scrambling for the 3,498 votes in the seven polling units.

Ahead of today’s rerun, the two candidates courted the 2nd runner up, Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Social Democratic Party who came third in Saturday’s election with 128,049 votes. Three of the polling units – Ife North and Ife South – are in Omisore’s stronghold.

Omisore later sealed a deal with the APC and directed his supporters to cast their votes for the ruling party.

Meanwhile, the Resident Electoral Commisioner in Osun, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, has warned hoodlums and those who are not eligible to vote to stay away from the seven polling units.

He said this on Thursday morning at Alekuwodo in Osogbo when he visited Ward 5 Unit 17 to inspect the voting process.

There is a large turnout of voters in the seven polling units and so far, no any serious incident has been reported.