Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party has maintained his lead over the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, as collation of results from Saturday’s Osun State governorship election continues.

Results from 303 of the state’s 332 wards showed Adeleke leading with 177,572 votes, representing 50.5 per cent of the votes recorded so far. Oyebamiji followed with 158,588 votes, or 45.1 per cent, according to figures from the Nigeria Elections Intelligence System.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, was in third position with 5,917 votes at the time of filing the report, while collation remained ongoing across the state’s 30 local government areas.

The figures showed that 361,500 of the 845,100 registered voters had been accredited, representing a voter turnout of 42.8 per cent. Of the votes cast so far, 351,500 were valid, while 7,200 ballots were rejected.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said 43.41 per cent of polling units had reported results as the collation entered its concluding stages. The final result is expected to be formally announced by the state Returning Officer at the INEC collation centre after all outstanding results have been received and verified.