#NigeriaDecides: Obi takes 91.42% of total votes in Enugu

The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has claimed victory in Enugu State. The LP candidate got 428,640 votes out of the 468891 votes cast in the February 25 election.

This gave LP 91.42 percent of the total votes cast in the state.

The People’s Democratic Candidate (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, got 15,749 of the total votes. This gives PDP 3.36 percent of the total votes. 

Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 4,772 (1.02 percent) votes in the state, while the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) contestant, Rabiu Kwankwaso, polled 1,803 votes. 

With the first round of the 2023 elections over, here is how the people of Enugu State fared.

Poor voter turnout

The state recorded a very poor turnout for the presidential election held over the weekend. Out of the 2,112,793 registered voters, only 482,990 voters came out to vote on Saturday, February 25.

This gives a voter turnout of 22.86 percent for the last round of elections.

The turnout in the 2023 presidential election represents the state’s all-time lowest over the last three election cycles.

The 2015 general election remains the state’s best turnout, where it recorded a 42.39 percent turnout. In the 2015 general election, 585.632 voters out of its 1,381,563 registered voters came out to cast their votes.

In 2019, 451,063 voters out of 1,944,016 registered voters cast their votes during the general election.

The first round of the 2023 election saw only 22.86 percent of the registered voters carrying out their civic rights. This represents a drop in the trend from 2015.

Labour Party won all the local government in the state

For the presidential election results as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), LP won in all 17 local government areas in the state.

The LP got between 84.42 percent of the total votes cast and 96.19 percent in local governments.

In Uzo-Uwani, the party recorded the least votes in percentage as it polled 84.42 percent of the total votes cast. The party got 11,974 of the total 14,184 votes cast for the presidential election. 

It recorded a 96.19 percent votes cast in Enugu North, making it the highest vote in terms of percentage. In the local government, the party got 44.666 votes of the total 46,434 vote cast. 

Invalid votes

Out of the 468,891 total votes cast, 12,467 were declared invalid. This means that 2.66 percent of the votes cast were invalid and, as such, not counted.

The number of invalid votes varies from local government to local government. Enugu East local government had the highest number of invalid votes. After the votes were cast, 1,385 of the 46,434 votes were deemed invalid.

With 305 of its 12,194 votes invalid, Aninri local government had the least number of invalid votes.

However, Igbo Eze North Local Government had the highest percentage of invalid votes to total votes. Though 645 of its votes were invalid compared to the total 17,463 votes cast, 3.69 percent of its votes were rejected. This gave the local government the highest percentage of invalid votes.

The least percentage of invalid votes was in Enugu North Local Government, where 670 of the 15,184 votes were declared invalid by the local government. This means that 1.44 percent of its votes were invalid.