Voting concludes in Ondo Governorship election, as sorting, counting begin

Voting has ended in the Ondo governorship election hours after the exercise began across the oil-producing state.

In some parts of the state, the exercise ended around 2:30 pm with sorting and counting of votes already in process.

However, voters who arrived at the polling units but have yet to cast their ballots before that time will be allowed to do so.

The election began around 8 am in the 3,933 polling units of the South-West state. Materials for the exercise arrived in some places as early as 6 am with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ramping up preparations for the poll.

INEC cleared 1`8 candidates for the election as Ondo residents choose their governor for the next four years. Analysts believe the exercise is a two-horse race between incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa who is flying the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Ajayi Agboola.

Interestingly, both men served as deputy governors of the state in the administration of late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu who passed on late last year. Upon his death, Aiyedatiwa was sworn in to take the reins of leadership in the Sunshine State.

After exercising their franchise in the election, the top contenders, however, differed in their assessment of the poll.

As far as Aiyedatiwa is concerned, the election was peaceful and the turnout was encouraging.

“With what we have done for the last 10 months, the populace, the voters, like 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.”

“In my community, it is peaceful and turnout is very, very encouraging. And I want to believe that the same situation would be at other locations across the state. It’s peaceful here,” he said.

The PDP candidate accused INEC of compromising the election.

But Agboola has faulted the process. The PDP candidate alleged that the slow pace of the exercise was an attempt by INEC to rig the governorship poll.

“The system is not perfect, things are not working,” the PDP candidate said after voting. It took them more than 10 minutes to capture me who is the candidate of the PDP here. All of us are here. You can see the drama. There are a lot of complaints here and there,” the PDP candidate said.

“If INEC cannot successfully organise an election in one state, then you must know that we are running into anarchy.

“I think it’s deliberate on the part of INEC and the part of the REC and we have said severally that we don’t trust Barr. Oluwatoyin Babalola (REC); that this woman cannot be fair.

“The system is compromised and I have had a series of calls today. People are complaining about vote buying and the BVAS is not working. It is a very shameful exercise and I think Nigerians should just call on the chairman of the electoral commission Prof Mahmood Yakubu. If you cannot do the job, please just honourably resign. He should resign. This is embarrassing. It [election] is totally compromised.”