The Coordinator of Election Monitor, Mr Abiodun Ajijola, has described the August 9 Osun election a pass mark, saying that “it was interesting and well conducted”.
“A lot of people are of the opinion that the election was relatively okay and the result probably reflects to a large extent the will of the people”, he added
Mr Ajijola, who noted that there were 1, 407, 222 registered voters due to the continuous voter registration conducted by INEC in March, added that “at the time the election was conducted, the Permanent Voter Cards had been printed, but not all of this cards had been collected by voters”.
He however noted that about 986,117 (70 per cent) voters had collected the cards, insisting that it is a better statistic from what was obtainable in Ekiti state where only 65 per cent of voter cards were collected.
“There are reasons why people have not collected (their voter cards). To a large extent, it was an improvement from that point of view and I think INEC should be commended” he said, while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Sunday.
He attributed the low turn out recorded in the Obafemi Awolowo University to the fact that students are presently on holiday, while others, who registered in 2011 may have graduated from the institution.
Though he said the voter turn out was not very good, he commended residents of the state for putting a good show during the election, adding that out of the 764, 581 that showed up for accreditation, only 717, 321 votes were valid, while about 32, 000 were cancelled.
He further noted that some people didn’t come to vote after they had earlier been accredited.
He gave the electoral body a passmark for the conduct of the election and the way they handled logistic problems, which according to him, has always been a problem.
“I will give INEC 75 per cent. If you look at the different processes of the election from the pre election phase, where you think about the distribution of PVCs; when you think of what happened between the former REC Osun state and some political parties, all these where handled well” he added.
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Rauf Aregbesola was declared winner of the election after he polled 394,684 votes to defeat his opponents.
Iyiola Omisore of the People’s Democratic Party polled 292,747 to emerge second, while Fatai Akingbade of the Labour Party polled 8,898 votes to take the third place.
The incumbent Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, on Saturday expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the Osun election, adding that the large turnout and the peaceful manner in which the electorates conducted themselves should be commended.
