… ZLP distant 3rd
GOVERNOR Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has been re-elected to serve for another four years on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Akeredolu was declared winner of the October 10, 2020 Ondo State Governorship Election, with a total of 292,830 votes against the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Eyitayo Jegede, who polled 195,791 votes in total.
The Deputy Governor of the state and candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, Agboola Ajayi, clinched the third position with 69,127 votes.
Akeredolu (APC) won in 15 out of the 18 Local Government Areas of the state, while Jegede (PDP) won in three LGAs.
Jegede, however, proved his popularity in his base, Akure, defeating his main contender with 33,067 votes.
In Akure South, he got 47,627 votes to defeat Akeredolu, who had 17, 277 votes. Zenith Labour Party got 3,623 votes; while in Akure North, Akeredolu had 9,546 votes; Jegede, 12,263; and Agboola Ajayi, 1,046 votes.
The election week had been tension-soaked as the PDP candidate appeared to have been ahead in opinion polls, especially in Akure, the state capital. But supporters of the APC were confident that the party and its candidate would emerge victorious in the just concluded Saturday poll.
There were also insinuations that Ajayi, who had initially defected to the PDP after he decamped from the ruling APC, would work with the PDP’s Jegede to unseat his estranged boss.
He, however, reaffirmed on the day of the election that he was still in the race and called on the electorate to disregard the rumour and a resignation letter purportedly signed by him contrary to that.
Some analysts who spoke to The Point on the outcome of the election, however, said Ajayi performed better than they had expected, noting that his movement from one party to the other had been seen as one that could mar his chances greatly.
“The fact that he kept avoiding debates over flimsy excuses was also something that could put enlightened voters off,” a lecturer in the Mass Communication Department of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, who asked not to be named, said.
“If the PDP had succeeded with the proposed alliance with former Governor Mimiko and ZLP, the results might have been a little different. In a few of the Local Government Areas, the total of ZLP and PDP votes was more than what APC got,” another resident, Olaolu Olabode, said.
