Adeleke Takes Early Lead in Osun Governorship Race as 20.99% of Polling Units Report

OSOGBO — Incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke has taken an early lead in the Osun State governorship election, according to the partial results displayed on an election results dashboard as counting and result uploads continue across the state.

The figures currently displayed put Adeleke, the candidate of the Accord Party, on 53,269 votes, representing 50.3 per cent of the votes shown on the dashboard.

His closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has 48,581 votes, giving him 45.9 per cent at this stage.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, is currently third with 1,665 votes, while Olanrewaju Faronloye of the Action Alliance (AA) has 711 votes.

Other candidates account for the remaining votes displayed in the partial tally.

Results Still Far From Final

Despite Adeleke's current advantage, the figures should not be interpreted as the final outcome of the election.

The dashboard shown in the results update indicates that 20.99 per cent of polling units had reported at the time the figures were captured, leaving a substantial number of polling-unit results still to come.

The same dashboard separately shows 202 of Osun's 332 wards reporting, illustrating that the ward-reporting figure and polling-unit reporting percentage are different measures of the results process.

At the stage reflected in the update, about 250,100 voters were registered in the reporting area, with 108,400 accredited voters. The dashboard records approximately 106,000 valid votes and 2,200 rejected ballots, with turnout put at 43.4 per cent.

INEC has been uploading results from polling units to its Result Viewing (IReV) portal as voting and counting progress across the state. Live election coverage has also reported individual polling-unit results from different parts of Osun.

Adeleke Holds Narrow Advantage Over APC Challenger

The early numbers show Adeleke with a lead of 4,688 votes over Oyebamiji.

However, that margin could change significantly as additional polling-unit results are uploaded and collated.

The Osun election has attracted considerable attention because of the contest between the incumbent and major opposition candidates. Analysts had described the race as one of the more closely watched off-cycle governorship contests in Nigeria.

For now, Adeleke is ahead in the partial figures available, but no winner should be declared from these early numbersuntil the Independent National Electoral Commission completes the collation and announces the official result.

Talk Ya True will continue to track the results as more polling-unit figures are reported and the official collation progresses.