Incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke has secured victory in the 2026 Osun State governorship election under the Accord party, expanding his winning margin against the All Progressives Congress (APC) in an election marked by higher voter turnout and a larger electorate, according to data released by the Athena Election Observatory (AEO).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Adeleke the winner after he polled 511,067 votes (51.90% of valid votes), defeating APC’s Munirudeen B.
Oyebamiji, who secured 444,815 votes (45.17%). Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) placed third with 17,180 votes (1.75%). Total valid votes stood at 985,079, while 20,721 votes were rejected out of 1,005,800 total votes cast.
The victory represents a 133.7% increase in Adeleke’s margin of victory, which expanded from 28,344 votes in 2022 to 66,252 votes in 2026.
In 2022, Adeleke, then running under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), won with 403,371 votes against former Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the APC, who scored 375,027 votes.
Data from the AEO highlights significant growth in voter participation across the state.
In its assessment, the AEO noted that organized political competition and a expanding voter base served as vital deterrents against election manipulation, stating that retail vote buying becomes more expensive and unpredictable in a larger, highly mobilized electorate.
The observatory also commended improvements in INEC’s election technology, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), noting that structured digital result capture has strengthened the electoral audit trail.
However, AEO pointed out that transmission delays, system resilience, and reconciliation across digital records remain critical areas for improvement.
AEO announced it is moving into a post-election audit phase to reconcile polling-unit results, BVAS accreditation data, and Forms EC8B–E to verify whether the complete electoral record supports the declared result.
