Nigeria’s ruling party has won an election for governor in southern Edo state, the electoral commission said, in what President Bola Tinubu’s office said showed support for his economic reforms.
The state has traditionally swung between the ruling party and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but the wider region is a PDP stronghold.
The electoral body announced on Sunday that Senator Monday Okpebholo of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had won 291,667 votes to defeat the PDP’s Asue Ighodalo, who scored 247,274 in Saturday’s ballot.
“Okpebholo Monday of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” returning officer Faruk Adamu Kuta, of the Independent National Electoral Commission, said in the city of Benin, the state capital.
Former leader of Nigeria’s main lawyers’ union Olumide Akpata, who was the candidate of the rising opposition Labour Party, garnered 22,763 ballots.
