Ekiti governorship election was generally successful - INEC

- Nigeria's electoral body has described Saturday's Ekiti election as a successful one - INEC said it was happy with the deployment of logistics for the Ekiti gubernatorial election - According to the commission, 92% of the polling units commenced accreditation and voting on schedule The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said that the just concluded Saturday governorship election was generally successful. INEC director of voter education and publicity, Oluwole Osaze -Uzzi, said this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, July 15, in Abuja. He said while the deployment of logistics went as planned, over 92% of the polling units commenced on schedule. “Basically, the election was generally successful. We are happy that the logistic delivery went in accordance to the way it was planned. “Over 92 per cent of the polling units opened as scheduled. We are satisfied with the conduct of the election. “We also commended the peaceful conduct the of the people of Ekiti State, not withstanding the couple of few places where there were issues. “We note the comments of election observers on the use of money. “We look forward to work with the Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders on how to address this in future elections.” He commended the contributions of all stakeholders to the success of the elections. Osaze-Uzzi said that the INEC would improve on its success in the future elections, especially Osun governorship poll, impending by-elections and the 2019 general elections. “We have Osun governorship election and by-elections to conduct in Kastina, Bauchi and Cross River. “We will look at where our card readers had issues and how to further improve on election. “Then we will deploy technology tools that led to the success of this election in Osun and other forthcoming by-elections. “By the time we get to 2019 general elections, I believe we will have successful elections across the country. “We are certainly going to look at the experienced challenges and build on our success for 2019. The former minister of solid minerals and development won 12 local government areas in the state, thus defeating the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kolapo Olusola. The APC candidate polled 197,459 votes while his closest rival had 178,121 votes, a margin of 19,338.