Osun 2026: What Happens If the Governorship Election Is Declared Inconclusive?
- INEC has the power to declare a governorship election inconclusive under specific conditions outlined in the 2022 Electoral Act
- Nigeria has a history of inconclusive elections dating back to 2011, with supplementary polls held across multiple states since then
- Voters in affected polling units must return to cast their ballots again, though supplementary elections have consistently recorded low turnout
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As Osun State moves closer to its 2026 governorship election, questions are mounting about what happens if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declares the result inconclusive.
The answer lies in a well-established but often misunderstood framework within Nigeria's electoral law.
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What makes an election inconclusive
According to The Cable, under the 2022 Electoral Act, INEC can declare a governorship election inconclusive when no clear winner can be determined from the results. This typically happens when the margin of victory between the leading candidates is smaller than the total number of votes that were cancelled across various polling units.
Votes are cancelled when irregularities occur, such as electoral violence, overvoting, a failure by INEC to deploy officials, or a breakdown of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) that prevents voters from being properly accredited.
It is worth noting that cancelled votes differ from voided votes. A voided vote is one discarded because of a mistake made by the voter, such as thumbprinting on sections meant for two different parties on the same ballot paper, which is not counted. Cancelled votes, on the other hand, are annulled by INEC based on procedural breaches at the polling unit level.
What comes after an inconclusive declaration
According to CDD Factcheck, once INEC declares an election inconclusive, it fixes a new date for a supplementary election, which is a fresh poll held only in the specific polling units where results were cancelled. The supplementary election follows the same procedures as the original vote. It is not a re-run of the entire election, nor is it a run-off, which is a separate process triggered when the leading candidate fails to meet the required spread of votes across the state.
Nigeria has seen supplementary elections at various points since 2011, when the concept first surfaced under former INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega following a disputed governorship vote in Imo State. Since then, supplementary elections have been held in Taraba and Kogi in 2015, and in six states, including Kano, Bauchi, and Adamawa, after the 2019 general elections. Following the February and March 2023 elections, inconclusive results were recorded in states ranging from Yobe and Zamfara to Kebbi and Adamawa.
Voter turnout remains a concern
One pattern that consistently emerges from supplementary elections is low voter turnout. Returning to the polls a second time can feel burdensome, but the voters who do participate carry significant weight, because a smaller number of ballots decides the final outcome. In a tight governorship race, every vote cast in a supplementary election matters considerably more than it would have in the original poll.
For Osun residents, understanding this process ahead of the 2026 election is essential to making sense of any declaration INEC may issue on election day.
Source: Twitter
INEC adds politician to Osun guber race
Legit.ng earlier reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cleared Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Francis Ajala and his running mate, Faseke Oladipo, to contest the Osun State governorship election after a court ordered their inclusion on the ballot.
Source: Legit.ng
