Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressive Congress led the vote by a clear margin over his closest rival from the Labor Party.
The Lagos governor has easily won re-election in a low-turnout local vote, figures show, marking a victory for Nigeria’s ruling party just weeks after the commercial capital. backed the opposition in a disputed presidential election.
According to the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), incumbent Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party polled more than 736,000 votes after votes were counted in districts representing 95 percent of voters on Sunday. .
His closest rival, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labor Party, won 292,000 votes, according to figures released by INEC.
Turnout was just a small fraction of the seven million registered voters in Africa’s largest megacity, which has a population of more than 20 million people.
He lagos elections it was the highest profile among contests for powerful governorships in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states, as well as for state assemblies across the country.
The race in Lagos was expected to be close after opposition Labor candidate Peter Obi received the most votes in the state during last month’s disputed presidential election, which was won overall by the APC’s Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu himself is a former governor of Lagos, who led the state from 1999 to 2007 and has since been seen as instrumental in choosing his successors there, including Sanwo-Olu.
Obi has said rampant fraud robbed him of victory, and political analysts said his handling of last month’s presidential election may have discouraged some voters from contesting Saturday’s regional elections.
Some INEC officials presenting the results in Lagos on Sunday reported that some ballot boxes had been stolen, but said this was not widespread enough to affect the outcome of the vote.
Voting has been postponed until Sunday at 10 polling stations in a Lagos neighborhood after disagreements between INEC officials and voters over the location of voting units. The final results were expected later.
Governors wield great influence in Africa’s most populous nation, and their support can help decide who becomes president.
Some governors preside over states whose annual budgets are larger than those of some small African countries. Lagos has an annual budget of 4,000 million dollars.
In northeastern Adamawa, a conservative and largely Muslim state, election officials were collating the results after a race that could see First female elected governor of Nigeria.
Voters were still casting their ballots in two districts in the oil-producing state of Rivers, where INEC did not provide voting materials.
