Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has won the Ondo governorship election held on Saturday.
Mr. Akeredolu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won in 15 of the state’s 18 local government areas, based on the results announced by the electoral commission, INEC, at its headquarters in Abuja.
Eyitayo Jegede, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won in the remaining three local governments.
A total of 17 candidates took part in the election.
The INEC returning officer and vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI), Idowu Olayinka, made the announcement at about 3 p.m. on Sunday, after all the results across the state’s 18 local government areas had been collated.
According to Mr Olayinka, a total of 572,745 valid votes were recorded while 18,448 were rejected, and about 16,000 votes cancelled.
While the APC candidate polled 292,830, Mr. Jegede scored 195,791 votes, a difference of 97,039 votes
The incumbent deputy governor in the state and candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Agboola Ajayi, came a distant third by scoring 69,127 votes.
Mr Akeredolu had also defeated Mr Jegede in the 2016 governorship election. Then, Mr Ajayi was Mr Akeredolu’s running mate.
INEC said a total of 17 political parties out of Nigeria’s 18 registered parties, took part in the poll.
The agent for APC, and special adviser to the governor, Victor Olabintan, thanked the voters and the people of the state for their trust in the ruling party.
He said Mr. Akeredolu will not take the trust for granted.
