At least 24 vote buying incidents have been recorded by election observers in the ongoing 2026 Ekiti State Governorship Election.
The election observers, in a joint statement issued at the Election Observation Hub coordinated by the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), revealed that the 24 vote buying incidents were reported in nine local government areas.
However, majority of the incidents were recorded in Irepodun/Ifelodun and Ado-Ekiti Local Government Areas.
Also recorded were 24 cases of electoral violence across the nine LGAs.
‘The credibility and integrity of this election is threatened by isolated cases of violence and well organised vote buying schemes.
“So far, there 24 reported incidents of violence across the LGAs of Irepodun/Ifelodun, Ado-Ekiti, Emure, Ido-Osi, Ilejemeje, Ijero, Ise-Orun, Ikole, and Oye.
“Reports of vote buying and voters intimidation were received across nine LGAs with 24 incidents well recorded with specific cases mainly in Irepodun/Ifelodun and Ado-Ekiti LGA.” The group said.
While noting that the report does not represent their final assessment of the Saturday election, the election observers commended the peaceful conduct of the election as well as the timely arrival of election officials.
According to the observers, reports indicated early arrival of officials with 69 percent of polling unit commencing accreditation at exactly 8:30am.
The overall security situation was considered peaceful with the deployment of five to 10 security personnel to each of the 2,442 polling units across the state.
Meanwhile, as against reports of the technical glitches on Biomdal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine in some polling units, the election observers held that BVAS was optimal with 96 perecent level of performance.