Ekiti Election 2026: Police Chief Celebrates High Early Voter Turnout

The Police Commissioner for the Ekiti State 2026 Governorship Election, Abayomi Shogunle, praised the early voter turnout on Saturday. He called it unprecedented.

Mr Shogunle made these comments as voting began in different local government areas in Ekiti State during Saturday’s election.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported earlier that voters and election materials arrived early at many polling units in the state to start the gubernatorial election.

In a post on X, Mr Shogunle noted the impressive voter turnout within the first hour of voting, saying it was unprecedented.

“Accreditation and voting in the Ekiti State 2026 Governorship election started at 8:30 a.m. today at Polling Units across all Local Government Areas. There is a high voter turnout in the first hour of commencement, this is unprecedented.

“Our pre-voting assessment predicted this would happen,” the police chief said, as voting continued across the 16 local government areas in the state.

The latest numbers from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) show that 97.1 percent of registered voters in Ekiti State collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) before the election. This confirms they are eligible to vote.

INEC reported that out of 1,059,360 registered voters in the state, 1,028,929 collected their PVCs, leaving 30,431 still uncollected.

This high number of PVC collections matched the police commissioner’s observation. Residents are now set to choose the next governor from 14 candidates listed by INEC.