Osun Election: Adeleke Maintaining Clear Lead by 63,098 Votes in Partial Results

Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party is maintaining a clear lead over the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, in the latest partial results from the Osun State governorship election, although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not declared a winner.

A Dataphyte election-results dashboard, based on results uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV), showed Adeleke with 408,269 votes, representing 52.59 per cent of the valid votes recorded, against 345,171 votes for Oyebamiji, who had 44.47 per cent.

The figures give Adeleke a provisional lead of 63,098 votes over his closest challenger.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, was in third place with 13,206 votes, or 1.70 per cent. A further 12 candidates accounted for the remaining votes.

The latest figures were displayed on the Dataphyte dashboard at about 8.23pm on Saturday.

The dashboard indicated that results had been received from 3,020 of Osun’s 3,763 polling units, meaning results from 743 polling units were still outstanding in the dataset at the time of the snapshot. The figures showed 791,581 total votes cast, of which 776,275 were valid and 15,306 were rejected.

The result coverage represents about 80.3 per cent of the state’s polling units, but the number of polling units reporting does not by itself determine the final margin because turnout and candidate performance vary from one polling unit and local government area to another.

INEC’s official election-results infrastructure remains the authoritative source for the progressive upload and verification of polling-unit results. INEC says its Result Viewing Portal is intended to provide public access to results transmitted from polling units.

INEC had earlier stated that the election was being conducted across 3,763 polling units in 30 local government areas of Osun State. Voting began at about 8.30am in many locations, with polling generally scheduled to run until 2.30pm, after which sorting and counting began at polling units.

As results were transmitted and collated, INEC continued uploading polling-unit result sheets to IReV. Multiple news organisations reported that the proportion of uploaded results had passed 80 per cent as the evening progressed.

Dataphyte had earlier reported, when results from 2,186 polling units were available, that Adeleke led with 52.75 per cent against Oyebamiji’s 44.36 per cent. The latest upload therefore shows that the two leading candidates have remained separated by roughly eight percentage points as additional results have entered the system.

The movement in the figures also illustrates why the current numbers cannot be regarded as final. Results from the remaining polling units could alter both the vote totals and the final margin.

The contest has largely developed into a three-way race between Adeleke, Oyebamiji and Salaam, although the latest figures show a substantial gap between the first two candidates and the ADC candidate.

INEC’s final candidate list identified Adeleke as the Accord candidate, Oyebamiji as the APC candidate and Salaam as the ADC candidate, alongside candidates of other political parties. The commission subsequently added the Social Democratic Party candidate to the ballot, taking the field to 15 candidates.

Adeleke is seeking a second term after winning the 2022 governorship election on the PDP platform. He left the PDP in December 2025 and joined Accord, subsequently securing the party’s governorship ticket.

Adeleke’s present lead of 63,098 votes is significant, but it is not large enough to justify calling the election while almost one-fifth of the polling units in the Dataphyte upload remain outside the reported total.

The dashboard also records a total of 791,581 votes cast from the polling units represented in the current results. That figure should not be confused with the total number of registered voters in Osun State. INEC has said 2,339,233 voters are on the state’s 2026 register, while 1,906,390, or 81.5 per cent, had collected their Permanent Voter Cards before the election.

The current result therefore represents only part of the statewide electorate.

The voting process was reported to have proceeded peacefully in many parts of the state, although there were isolated incidents and complaints.

An incident was reported in Ejigbo in which hoodlums allegedly destroyed election materials and voters reportedly fled the area.

The election followed a period of heightened political tension in Osun. The International Centre for Investigative Reporting reported 73 election-related violent incidents in the state ahead of the poll, with deaths recorded in several local government areas.

For now, Adeleke is ahead, Oyebamiji is second and Salaam is a distant third in the partial results available. The final outcome will depend on the remaining polling-unit results, the formal collation process and INEC’s official declaration.