The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the Ondo South Senatorial District by-election, describing the exercise as peaceful despite some network-related challenges.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ondo State, Mutiu Agboke, stated this on Saturday in Okitipupa while monitoring the election exercise across the senatorial district.
Agboke said most polling units opened on schedule, with electoral officials arriving early to commence accreditation and voting. According to him, some polling units were fully operational as early as 7:43 a.m.
He noted that the early deployment of personnel and materials demonstrated the commission’s commitment to ensuring a smooth and credible electoral process.
“We saw enthusiasm among voters to participate in the election. Our officials were at the polling units early and, largely, most of the polling units opened on time,” he said.
The REC also commended security agencies for maintaining order, noting that adequate personnel had been deployed across the six local government areas participating in the by-election and that no security incidents had been recorded.
Addressing reports of network difficulties affecting voter accreditation in some locations, Agboke explained that the issue was a technical challenge being handled by INEC’s support team.
He stressed that the commission was responding professionally to the situation and working to ensure that the challenges did not disrupt the electoral process.
Speaking on voter participation, Agboke said it was too early to determine the level of turnout, adding that the commission would rely on data from its monitoring dashboard before making any official assessment.
Also speaking, INEC National Commissioner, Kunle Ajayi, explained that election results would be uploaded electronically through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) after votes are counted at polling units.
Ajayi clarified that while result sheets would be uploaded to IReV after being signed by party agents, the portal only displays uploaded results and does not automatically compute final scores. He noted that the official outcome would be determined at the senatorial collation centre after results from all polling units and collation centres are aggregated.
The by-election is being held to fill the vacant Ondo South Senatorial seat following the appointment of former senator Jimoh Ibrahim as Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
