Only 360,753 people out of the total 988,923 registered voters came out to vote in the just concluded Ekiti state Governorship election. This represents a meagre 36.5% voter turnout.
Compared to the 2018 guber election, voter turnout in the 2022 election dropped by 7.9%.
A review of the state’s governorship elections data from 2003 to date, with the exception of 2007 due to unavailability of the data, shows that the 2022 turnout rate is the lowest the state has ever recorded.
In the early hours of today, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the 2022 Ekiti governorship election. He polled a total of 187,057 votes to defeat his closest contender, Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who polled 82,211 votes. The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bisi Kolawole got a total of 67,457 votes and came third.
Oyebanji, the winner of the 2022 governorship election, recorded 51.9% of the total votes cast, slightly higher than the percentage of the total votes Kayode Fayemi of the APC secured in 2018 to become the winner.
In the 2018 election, Fayemi polled 197,459 votes which was 51.3% of the 403,451 total votes cast in that election.
PDP got 178,121 votes and came second, while SDP secured only 367 votes. The reverse is the case in the 2022 elections as SDP came second and PDP came third.
Voter Turnout in Previous Elections
In the 2003 election, only 43.5% of the total 981,753 registered voters turned out to vote.
In 2014, voter turnout increased to 49.1%, although the number of registered voters dropped.
The state had a total of 909,585 registered voters in 2018 but recorded only 44.4% voter turnout.
According to INEC, 988,923 registered voters were expected to participate in the 2022 election. However, only 360,753 came out to vote, which is 36.5% of the total registered voters.
The good people of Ekiti state have decided and given their mandate to Oyebanji of the APC, however, the voter turnout in yesterday’s election leaves room for questions such as this, would the outcome have been different had more people come out to vote?
Many Nigerians on social media have expressed their worries about the turnout rate, noting that it is extremely low especially when compared to previous elections.
Shehu Sani, a former Senator from Kaduna state said that the turnout in Ekiti state is below expectations, and noted that if the turnout rate reflects the perception of the whole country, probably towards the 2023 general election, then nothing different has changed.
“With all the hoopla about the surge in PVC demand, the voter turnout in Ekiti is far below expectations. If this reflects the country, nothing much has changed”, he said.
Another Twitter user, Oluwole Dada with the handle @oluwole_dada, also said that the turnout rate in the Ekiti election is a pointer that the uproar online may not lead to any difference in the anticipated upcoming general elections.
“The turnout of #EkitiDecides2022 may be a sign that the noise online may not lead to any significant difference in the 2023 general elections. The voter turnout today doesn’t show a significant difference from what we have had in times past”, Dada tweeted.
Many other social media users had similar reactions which begs the question, if Nigerians, particularly the youth will turn out to vote in the upcoming general election beyond the “noise” on social media.
This worry might be valid because the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) collection in Ekiti in 2022 is 12.3% higher than the 667,270 collected in 2018 but this did not translate into higher voter turnout.
On top of efforts to get more Nigerians to register for their PVC, there might be a need to carry these efforts forward into getting Nigerians to actually turn up to vote.