The All Progressives Congress has short in the lead in Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State.
Before the announcement of a break at the collation centre in Benin City, the Edo State capital, at about 2:10pm, APC was in the lead.
It had won in 10 out of the 16 local government areas where the results had been announced.
Edo State has 18 local government areas.
The Peoples Democratic Party took the remaining six local government areas.
The results from two local government areas were still being expected.
The collation of result will resume at 5pm.
Meanwhile, the accredited civil society organisations have expressed concerns on the transparency of the results collation process in the 2024 Edo Governorship election.
The Group, in a joint-signed statement, opined that reports of disruptions at ward and local government collation centres, including intimidation of INEC officials and attempts to collate result ls contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, raise significant concerns about the credibility of the results collation process.
“We acknowledge INEC’s recent statement recognising reports of result mutilation and its commitment to investigate and after any proven violations.
“In light of this, we urge INEC to invoke its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 to review any declarations and return where results were not declared voluntarily or violated provisions of the electoral act and INEC regulations, and guidelines.
“We further call on security agencies to refrain from interference in the collation process and to ensure that accredited party agents, the media, and the election observers are granted full access to collation centres.
“We wish to emphasise that the role of security agencies in the election is to safeguard the process and not to create a situation that will undermine the transparency of the process and this impact negatively on the credibility of the outcome of the election,” statement read.
Results so far:
Etsako West LG
APC: 32,107
LP: 2,116
PDP: 17,483
Etsako Central LG
APC: 11,906
LP: 381
PDP: 8,455
Etsako East LG
APC: 20,167
LP: 604
PDP: 9,683
Owan West LG
APC: 19,380
LP: 446
PDP: 14,189
Orhionmwon LG
APC: 16,059
LP: 556
PDP: 14,614
Ovia South-West LG
APC:10,150
LP: 849
PDP: 10,260
Esan North-East LG
APC: 10,648
LP: 194
PDP: 12,522
Esan Central LG
APC: 10,990
LP: 418
PDP: 8,618
Akoko Edo LG
APC: 34,847
LP: 2,239
PDP: 15,865
Egor LG
APC: 16,760
LP: 1,966
PDP: 14,658
Esan South-East LG
APC: 8,398
LP: 98
PDP: 14,199
