The Osun State governorship election held on Saturday, 16th July 2023 and Senator Ademola Adeleke of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday, 17th July 2022. He secured 403,371 votes to beat his closest rival, incumbent Governor of Osun State and candidate of the All progressives Congress (APC) in the election, Adegboyega Oyetola, who scored 375,027 votes.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, a platform of more than 80 civil society organisations observed the election and issued statements. Situation Room noted among others, that the election was peaceful despite the backdrop of apprehension and speculations of violence. Situation Room also commended the high rate of Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) collection (1,518,303 voters). It reported that INEC’s Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines functioned properly during the election and 99.4% polling unit results were uploaded on INEC’s Result Viewing portal as at 11pm on election day. Priority voting was available for the elderly and persons with disabilities (PWDs), although a few polling units observed were located in areas with staircases, making it inaccessible to PWDs. However, open negotiations for vote buying were observed in many polling units, with coded communication and coupons used to extract commitments from voters, as opposed to physical exchange of cash. The voter turnout for the election – 827,218 voters, is 42.37% of 1,952,387 registered voters and 54.48% of 1,518,303 voters who have collected their PVCs.
Unlike the 2018 Osun State governorship election, which saw a controversial run-off election between Ademola Adeleke and Adegboyega Oyetola, who were also the candidates of the PDP and APC, respectively at the time, the 2022 election was adjudged peaceful. The peaceful nature of the election and the increase in PVCs collected, as well as the turnout of voters portend a positive outlook for the upcoming 2023 general elections.