The independent National Electoral Commission has declared the governorship election which held on Saturday September 22, inconclusive because of cancellations in seven units out of 3010 voting units in the state.
Giving reasons for the decision the Returning Officer for the election, Professor Joseph Afuape said the number of cancelled votes is higher than the margin between the two top candidates.

Only 353 votes separates the Peoples Democratic Party candidate Senator Ademola Adeleke who polled 254,698 votes,and his closest rival Alhadji Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress who polled 254,698 votes.
According to the Returning Officer, the margin was less than the 3,498 votes in the 7 polling units where voting was cancelled and the people disenfranchised.

The run-off election is now to hold on Thursday in 3 units in Orolu local government where there were incidences of ballot snatching, in Ife South where the card reader malfunctioned and was abandon for manual accreditation which is against the rules, in Ife North and in Osogbo.

According to Professor Afuape, “Unfortunately, as the Returning Officer, it is not possible to declare any party as the clear winner of this election at the first ballot, I hereby declare the result inconclusive.”

There was a lot of drama leading to the final announcement of the outcome of the election as inconclusive. There were objections to the final results in some local government namely Ayedade and Olorunda prompting a re-addition of the figures. While all these were going on, there was suspense in the air that the INEC might be plotting to alter the outcome of the results.

A lot of supporters of the PDP candidate quickly surrounded the INEC secretariat in Osogbo insiting that the results be announced.

The two parties have immediately gone back to the drawing board plotting their strategy on how to win the rerun election on Thursday. Without doubt, the next three days would witness intensive collaboration and horse trading among the political parties.

There are speculations already that the rerun election may witness a high incidence of vote selling and buying because these 3498 are the ultimate and privileged determiners of the final outcome of the governorship election