Residents of Anambra State, referred to locally as “Ndi Anambra” and drawn from twenty-one local government areas, strongly endorsed the current governor, Prof Charles Soludo, awarding him 422,664 votes and securing his leadership of the State for another four-year term.

Despite widespread concerns about insecurity and violence before the November 8 election, the State experienced an orderly, peaceful, and credible voting process.

Despite persistent low voter turnout attributed to residents’ lack of confidence in the electoral process—stemming from previous elections where votes were perceived as inconsequential—the overall participation has shown slight improvement. While the 2021 governorship election saw less than 20 per cent turnout, the 2025 election recorded an increase to approximately 22 per cent.

Out of 2,788,864 registered and 598,229 accredited voters, Anambra Governor Charles Soludo (APGA) won the 2025 Anambra governorship election with 422,664 votes, as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Charles Chukuma Soludo and his All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won with about 73 per cent of the votes in all the 21 local government areas. His closest challenger, Nicholas Ukachukwu, of the All Progressives Congress polling 99, 445 Votes.

Final Declaration of the results is as follows: Registered voters: 2,788,864; Accredited voters: 598,229, 21 LGAs. Total valid votes: 584,054, Rejected votes: 11,244, Total Votes cast: 595,298

A breakdown of the votes by all the political parties is as follows: A- 224, AA- 1,145, AAC- 292, ADC- 8208, APC- 99,445, APGA- 422,664, APM- 892, APP- 73, BP- 126, LP- 10,576, NNPP- 525, NRM – 36, PDP- 1,401, SDP- 241, YPP- 37,753, ZLP- 453.

Prof Charles Soludo, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and former Chief Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is the third governor under the platform of the All Progressives’ Grand Alliance to govern Anambra State after Peter Obi and Willie Obiano. The first two governors since 1999 were of the PDP. The PDP came sixth in this election.

Mr Peter Obi, despite his overall victory in the state during the 2023 presidential election, lost both his polling unit and Ward. Similarly, the Labour Party’s governorship candidate, Mr Moghaolu, also lost in his local area and constituency.

Integrity and Credibility of the Election

But for some minor hitches in the early commencement of accreditation and voting, the election was generally orderly and peaceful. The electoral officers were generally of good conduct and receptive to enquiries.

The Returning Officer for the governorship election, Professor Edoba Omoregie, SAN announced that he received complaints about the voting exercise in some local governments but the total figure was less than 10,000 votes, which was not significant enough to alter the outcome of the election.

The election saw reports of vote buying and trading across multiple parties. Videos showed candidate supporters distributing money and snacks to voters, while canvassers recorded names of those likely to receive compensation. POS operators near voting areas facilitated post-vote payments.

In certain areas, APGA and APC supporters bargained for votes. While the APC offered a higher amount of N10,000.00, the APGA offered N7,000.00 in some places in Onitsha.

Security

A heavy presence of the security personnel was visible in all the voting units. For places monitored in Awka, the capital city, there was an average of four to six security personnel at every polling unit. There were security barricades around the state, but the personnel were very polite and civil.

Soludo’s Victory Speech

Shortly after being declared the winner of the governorship election, Prof Charles Soludo addressed the people of the State, accepting his superlative endorsement. He expressed appreciation to the people of Anambra for overwhelmingly voting for him. He assured them that the work had started and was already working on the 2026 budget.

He assured them that his second term would bring forth more dividends of democracy to the people. He extended his olive hands to his opponents in the contest and invited them to join him in building the state, being brothers and sisters.

He thanked President Bola Tinubu for allowing democracy to thrive in a multi-party system. He commended him for non-interference in the electoral process.

Prof Soludo was full of praise for the Independent National Electoral Commission and the new leadership of Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan for delivering a credible election. He commended the efficiency of the IReV, which, according to him, worked optimally with 97 per cent of the votes uploaded by midnight.

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