Residents of Osun State have commenced voting across the state to decide who will become the next governor of the state.

People started turning out at polling units as early as 7am and accreditation and voting commenced at polling stations visited by our correspondents in the three senatorial districts of the state by 8am.

Activities at the polling units visited were peaceful with voters seen checking their names on the registers, queueing for accreditation before going to vote.

Beyond affording the people of the state the opportunity to elect their governor, the election is considered as a final test for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the 2019 general elections.

There are more than 1.6 million registered voters, and three 3,010 polling units spread across 30 local government areas.

The race is also a big one as there are 48 candidates battling for the top job in the state.

An election observer with YIAGA Africa, Mr Samson Itodo, said the process commenced early and has gone on well so far.

“There are a few non-identification of fingerprints but what we can observe is the enhanced card reader that was deployed for this election is being used to recapture the finger prints of voters whose finger prints were not authenticated by the card readers. So far so good.”

He, however, said it was too early to assess the election.