More than 24 hours after the Ekiti governorship election and the declaration of its winner, the Independent National Electoral Commission has yet to complete uploading polling unit results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Checks by Peoples Gazette on Sunday showed that only four of the state’s 16 local government areas had their polling unit results fully uploaded to the portal, leaving uploads from 12 LGAs incomplete despite the commission having concluded collation and declared the All Progressives Congress candidate, Biodun Oyebanji, winner of the election.
A further review of the portal showed that results from polling units in Oye, Efon, Ilejemeje and Ido/Osi LGAs had been completely uploaded as of 9:19 a.m. on Sunday.
Overall, the portal showed that results from 2,390 of the state’s 2,445 polling units had been uploaded, representing 97.75 per cent completion.
However, polling unit results from Irepodun/Ifelodun, Moba, Ikere, Ekiti West, Emure, Gbonyin, Ise/Orun, Ikole, Ekiti South-West, Ado-Ekiti, Ijero and Ekiti East LGAs were yet to be fully uploaded.
The outstanding uploads come despite INEC’s repeated assurances that the IReV portal is designed to enhance transparency by allowing the public to view polling unit result sheets as presiding officers upload them.
The chief returning officer, Adenike Oladiji, declared Mr Oyebanji the winner of the governorship election at about 3:16 a.m. on Sunday after he polled 319,224 votes to defeat other candidates in the contest conducted across 2,445 polling units in 177 wards and 16 local government areas.