INEC Chairman Says 14 Parties Will Contest August 15 Osun Governorship Election

Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman Joash Amupitan has said 14 political parties will compete in the August 15 governorship election in Osun State, while raising concern over reports of threats and violence, describing insecurity as a direct assault on the sanctity of the ballot.

Speaking at an interactive session with media executives in Osogbo, Amupitan said the total number of registered voters stands at 2,339,233 across 3,763 polling units in 320 wards and 30 local government areas, and confirmed 32,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps would be recruited for the election through the commission’s portal. He earlier led a delegation of national commissioners and technical teams on a field inspection of a mock accreditation exercise across the state’s three senatorial districts to test the functionality of the accreditation system under real world conditions.

Amupitan said the accreditation system demonstrated strong field resilience, verifying voters within 30 seconds to two minutes using fingerprint or facial recognition, and confirmed the commission increased the total number of devices deployed for the election from 4,427 to 5,130 to address concerns raised by political parties about coverage in high population areas, along with doubling backup devices to 1,328 for rapid intervention in case of malfunction.

On security, Amupitan said the commission has moved from reactive monitoring to proactive prevention, activating an inter-agency security committee working closely with police and the armed forces to protect polling staff, materials and voters, while also engaging in local community mediation to defuse tensions ahead of the vote. He said the commission would meet any attempt to disrupt the election with the full weight of the law.

Separately, the Osun State chapter of the Accord Party urged the commission to conduct a comprehensive technical audit of the accreditation machines to correct anomalies observed during the mock exercise, with state chairman Victor Akande saying the commission must demonstrate genuine readiness for a reliable and transparent voting process with less than two weeks remaining before the election.