With 13 political parties fielding candidates for Saturday’s governorship election, the race for the Osun State Government House has entered its decisive phase.
Across the state’s 30 local government areas, the candidates are criss-crossing communities, selling their records, programmes and political promises to voters ahead of the poll.
Although 14 candidates were initially on the ballot, barely a week before the election, Adesina Adeyemi-Doro, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), withdrew from the contest and endorsed the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji. Mr Adeyemi-Doro will still be on the ballot despite his withdrawal.
The contest has increasingly taken the shape of a three-way battle involving incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party, Mr Oyebamiji of the APC, and Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
About 2.4 million people are eligible to vote at the 3,763 polling units, spread across the 332 wards in the 30 councils, for their preferred candidates on Saturday. The voters have a coterie of candidates drawn from different professions and endeavours of life to choose from. Among them are accountants, administrators, social scientists, bankers, economists, entrepreneurs, medical practitioners, estate developers and others.
