INEC Starts Uploading Osun Poll Results To IReV
The Independent National Electoral Commission has commenced the upload of polling unit results from the Osun State governorship election to its Result Viewing Portal, known as IReV.
Uploading started shortly after voting closed at several units across the state on Saturday, 15 August 2026. INEC had fixed 2:30 p.m. as the official closing time for voting, subject to the completion of accreditation where necessary.
As of the time the development was reported, 267 polling unit results had been uploaded, representing 7.10 per cent of the 3,763 expected results from the state’s polling units. The appearance of the first batches of results on the portal marks the beginning of the electronic transmission and public viewing phase of the process.
The IReV platform allows members of the public, political parties, observers and other stakeholders to view scanned images of the Form EC8A result sheets completed at each polling unit. INEC has described the portal as a transparency tool designed to display polling unit outcomes rather than serve as a collation or tallying system.
The Osun election is being conducted across 30 local government areas, 332 wards and 3,763 polling units. Official figures put the number of registered voters at 2,339,233, of whom 1,906,390, or 81.50 per cent, had collected their Permanent Voter Cards before the poll. Fifteen political parties fielded candidates after the commission complied with a Federal High Court judgment ordering the inclusion of the Social Democratic Party candidate.
Earlier in the day, Afrobeats singer David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, had publicly questioned the absence of results on the portal shortly after the scheduled close of voting. In posts on his X handle, he called for timely uploads and urged voters to remain at their polling units until the results were transmitted and to photograph the result sheets. Independent checks around the same period confirmed that uploads were only beginning to appear in significant numbers.
Throughout the voting period, reports of technical challenges with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System had featured prominently. Complaints of slow performance, difficulties capturing the facial features of elderly voters and delays in high-density units were recorded in several locations, including Ode Omu, Ila, Ede North and other areas. Former Minister of State for Police Affairs, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan, and the incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke, were among those who raised concerns about the pace of accreditation.
INEC had deployed 4,427 BVAS devices, including 664 backups, for the election. A mock accreditation exercise held earlier in the month had already exposed some of the same technical limitations, particularly with older voter records. The commission maintained that biometric accreditation remained mandatory and that contingency arrangements were in place.
The Osun contest is the second off-cycle governorship election in the South-West in 2026, following the Ekiti poll. Previous elections in the state have often been closely fought, with the 2018 exercise declared inconclusive before a rerun and the 2022 poll resulting in a change of administration. As collation continues at ward, local government and state levels, the progressive upload of results to the IReV portal will remain a key focus for stakeholders seeking real-time visibility into the outcomes from individual polling units.