On Thursday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the Edo governorship election. Although controversies continue to trail the conduct of the polls, if Obaseki’s win stands, it will extend APC’s reign in the state by another four years. In the meantime, there are talks on whether the ruling party can leverage on its current momentum to win the Ondo state governorship election scheduled for November 26.
In the results announced by the INEC’s Returning Officer in Edo state, Kayode Soremekun, APC polled 319, 483 votes, as against 253, 173 votes garnered by its closest rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Obaseki’s party won in 13 out of the 18 Local Government Areas in the state.
“The state has a total of 1,900,223 registered voters, and 622,039 were accredited for the election while a total of 613,244 votes were [cast]. A total of 582,299 votes were valid and 30,945 votes were rejected across the eighteen (18) Local Government Areas in the state,” INEC said in a statement.
The Edo governorship poll has since generated mixed reactions from political stakeholders. Before the collation of the election results ended, PDP’s candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu rejected the election results citing electoral malpractice. There were reports that some party officials gave voters money at their polling units so that they could vote for a particular candidate.
Can APC leverage on its current momentum to claim Ondo state?
Barring a last-minute postponement, Ondo state governorship election will hold on November 26. Late on Thursday, INEC released the list of the governorship candidates contesting in the election. There are 29 candidates including APC’s Rotimi Akeredolu and Eyitayo Jegede of the PDP.
The political landscape in Ondo state is different from that of Edo state. Unlike the latter that has its incumbent governor from the APC, Ondo state has never had its governor from the APC or the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN [that merged with the Congress for Progressive Change to form the new APC]. The current state governor, Olusegun Mimiko is from the PDP and he has been at the helm of the state’s affairs for the last 8 years.
Obviously, the APC will need to go the extra mile if it will dislodge the PDP. At the moment, troubles that arose during the APC primary election are yet to be resolved. None of the major aspirants of the controversial governorship primary election has endorsed or pledged his support for Akeredolu. This has also polarized the interests of the party’s chieftains in the coming election. This adds up to the task of mobilizing a better support for Akeredolu, who had a disappointing outing in the last governorship election in the state.
The PDP in Ondo currently has better chances, and as things stand now, the divided APC household will need more than a momentum from Edo’s win to take over from a more united PDP come November 26 if the governorship election lives up to expectation.
