Over 98% of Edo election results uploaded on INEC’s IReV platform

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has uploaded over 98% of the results from the Edo gubernatorial election onto its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

Voters across all 18 local government areas of Edo State came out in large numbers on Saturday to elect a successor to Governor Godwin Obaseki.

As of 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, The Guardian confirmed that INEC had uploaded results from 4,435 out of the 4,519 polling units across the state.

Although 17 candidates are vying for the governorship, analysts have focused on a three-way contest between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Asue Ighodalo, Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Labour Party (LP) candidate Olumide Akpata.

PDP Points Fingers at APC, Claims Pressure to Halt Collation

In the midst of the election proceedings, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of exerting pressure on INEC and the Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Anugbum Onuoha, to halt the collation of results.

PDP spokesperson Debo Ologunagba issued a statement claiming that the APC was attempting to manipulate the election outcome by pressing INEC to suspend the collation process.

He alleged that this would allow the APC to alter results from polling units in their favour through tampering with the INEC portal.

“Intelligence available to the PDP indicates that the APC is mounting pressure on the INEC Chairman and Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to suspend the collation process so as to make way for the manipulation of the INEC Portal and replace the real results from the Units with fabricated figures in favour of the APC,” PDP said in a statement.

The PDP urged INEC to resist this pressure and ensure that the results from polling units remain unaltered.

The party also alleged that the APC was attempting to manipulate the military’s involvement in securing the election process, seeking to have armed thugs disrupt the collation.

The PDP warned that the people of Edo State were well aware of the authentic results and would not tolerate any efforts to alter them.

“INEC and the APC must note that any attempt to change the results of the Edo State governorship election will provoke worse consequences as the people have indicated their readiness to use every means allowed in a democracy including legitimate physical confrontation, if necessary to protect their votes,” the party added.

The party cautioned that altering the results could provoke a public backlash, with citizens ready to defend their votes by all democratic means.

APC Fires Back: Don’t Fall for Fake Results!

In response, the APC has called on the people of Edo State to ignore what it described as “fake results” circulating regarding Saturday’s election. In a statement by APC spokesperson Felix Morka, the party stressed that the official collation of votes was still in progress at the ward level and had not yet been completed at the local government or state levels.

“Our great party wishes to clarify that collation at the Ward level is still ongoing and has yet to be concluded. Certainly, local government level collation has yet to begin in most of the LGAs in the state let alone concluded.

“Consistent with the Electoral Act, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the sole authorised body empowered to collate results at the Ward, Local Government and State levels, and to officially declare the result of the election,” the statement read.

The APC urged the public to await the final announcement from INEC and to disregard speculative results being circulated on social media.

INEC Warns Against Premature Announcements

INEC also issued a warning to social media users announcing unverified results of the Edo gubernatorial election. The electoral body reiterated that only INEC has the authority to announce official election results and urged the public to disregard any unofficial reports.

With over 98% of polling unit results already uploaded to INEC’s IReV portal, final results are expected to be made available soon. The tension surrounding the results has led to heightened public interest and anticipation as the collation process nears completion.