On July 16, the electorates in Osun State went to the polls. The exercise took the whole day, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the final results in the early hours of Sunday, which ended in favour of Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Although Gboyega Oyetola, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and incumbent governor of the state who came second in the race, has said he is still studying the outcome of the election, the people of Osun state have spoken; and the exercise has come to an end.
For us at Dataphyte, we bring the critical numbers of the just concluded guber election, from registered voters to rejected votes.
Number of Registered Voters
The number of registered voters as collated by INEC for the July 16 election was 1.95 million. In 2018, the number of registered voters was 1.68 million. This shows that registered voters increased by 16%.
Number of PVCs Collected
Only 1.52 million registered voters collected their Permanent Voter Card (PVC). This puts the collection rate at 77.8%, an improvement over 2018. In the previous election, the collection rate was 67%.
Percentage of Voter Turnout
Only 823,124 of the 1.95 million registered voters in the election eventually voted, putting voter turnout at just 42.16%. Compared to the 45.74% voter turnout of 2018, the turnout this year is lower not just than in 2018 but in all elections.
4,094 Accredited Voters Didn’t Cast their Vote
One of the requirements stated in Section 47(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 is that voters must present themselves with their voter’s card to INEC’s presiding officer for accreditation before they cast their votes.
In line with this, 827,218 persons were accredited in the Osun governorship election. But the data released by INEC shows that 4,094 people did not get to cast their votes, as the total vote at the end of Saturday’s exercise was 823,124.
18,674 Rejected Votes
From the result released by INEC, 823,124 persons voted in the Osun state governorship election. Of this figure, a total of 18,674 votes were rejected.
Rejected votes account for 2.27% of the votes recorded in the election.