The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the Osun State governorship election inconclusive.
The reason for the cancellation, according to the electoral body, is because the number of cancelled votes is higher than the margin between the two top candidates – Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party and Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress.
The election, one of the closest in Nigeria’s electoral history, was held on Saturday to elect a new governor for the South-Western state.
At the end of collation of results, Ademola Adeleke of the PDP won majority votes of about 254,698 while Gboyega Oyetola of the APC came a close second with 254,345 votes.
According to electoral rules, a re-run election can be so declared if the margin of victory in an election is lower than cancelled votes, such as in Osun where thousands of votes were cancelled in various local governments while the vote difference between the leading candidates was less than a thousand. In that case, rerun will be held in only affected areas where elections were cancelled.
