Nigeria 2023 Governor Elections Live Results

See the breakdown below:

Governor Ahmdadu Umaru Fintiri of the PDP polled 421,524 votes, and his closest rival, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, polled 390,575 votes during the guber race in Adamawa.

However, the election results have been declared inconclusive by INEC. The election has drawn much attention as a major contender in the contest is Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, the second woman that could be elected as Governor in Nigeria.

Disclaimer: This post was updated at 9:30 pm on Mar 20 to correct the statement that PDP's Fintiri won the guber election in Adamawa. According to INEC, the results are inconclusive, and a re-run is expected.

See the breakdown below:

In the North-West so far, we are expecting results from Zamfara and Kaduna.

We've received results from Katsina, Sokoto and Jigawa (the APC won all three), the NNPP won Kano, and Kebbi was declared inconclusive.

In 2019, the APC won Kaduna State and while PDP won in Zamfara, the governor Bello Muhammed Mutawalle later decamped to APC during his tenure.

For Zamfara, we have just 5 out of 14 LGAs available, and the PDP has won all 5. In Kaduna, we have results for 18 out of 23 LGAs, and both the PDP and APC are tied with 9 LGAs so far. However, collation in Kaduna has been adjourned till 6 pm due to a disruption at the Kudan LGA collation centre. 

We'll keep our eyes on the North West to see whether the APC retains its dominance in the region.

Of the available state results announced so far, eight of the 11 governors up for re-election have kept their seats.

These re-elected governors are Bauchi's Bala Abdulkadir, Gombe's Yahaya Mohammed, Kwara's Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman, Lagos' Sanwo-Olu Babajide.

Also, Nasarawa's Sule Abdullahi Alhaji, Ogun's Abiodun Adedapo, Oyo's Makinde Oluseyi, and Yobe's Buni Mai Mala were re-elected.

Five new governors were elected in Akwa Ibom (PDP), Jigawa (APC), Kano (NNPP), Katsina (APC) and Sokoto (APC).

So far, all 13 declared winners are men between 52 and 62 years. 9 of them are APC candidates, while 3 belong to PDP, and only one is from NNPP.

Again, the governorship demography is similar to in 2019, when most of Nigeria's elected governors did not represent the diversity in Nigeria. This is because they were too old, too male, and belonged dominantly to two parties.

Disclaimer: We understand that this election cycle has been marred by irregularities amidst credible reports of voter suppression and violence. These results are provisional and not to be taken as official election results.

Across the country, voter turnout in Northern Nigeria is generally higher. The North-West was the geopolitical zone with the highest amount of turnout. In the 2019 presidential elections, average turnout was 35%. However, in three north-western states, we saw higher than average turnout: Kano (36%), Kaduna (44%), and Katsina (50%).

However, comparing turnout between the 2019 and 2023 gubernatorial elections reveals turnout has decreased. In Katsina, we noted a drop in turnout from 52% to 39% for the gubernatorial races. Interestingly though, turnout was higher for the gubernatorial race (39%) compared to the presidential (31%). A similar trend was noted for other states like Kano and Jigawa. 

What could be responsible for this?

Due to the heavy reliance on cash in the North, it was generally believed that the cash crunch affected the willingness of voters to turn up in the presidential election. But the increase in turnout for the gubernatorial elections even as cash crunch issues persist waters down this premise.

Perhaps lower turnout in the north during the presidential election was mostly driven by apathy---a consequence of President Buhari's lackluster performance over the past 8 years. 

All 17 local government results in the Plateau governorship contest have now been declared. Of those 17, the PDP leads in 10, while the APC have won the other seven.

This means that Mutfwang Caleb Manasseh of the PDP may soon be declared governor-elect by INEC. 

Winning in Plateau will be a flip for the PDP, with the outgoing governor Simon Lalong, being of the APC. Lalong also failed to win in his senate contest, losing to Napoleon Bali of the PDP. 

INEC recently issued a statement suspending collation in three LGAs: 

This happened after thugs attacked Obingwa LGA and held some INEC officials hostage. Results from Nkanu East were challenged by some party agents because BVAS machines were not used during the polling exercise (INEC officials claimed they were not working)

At the time of writing, we have not received confirmation on new dates for collation to re-commence.

See the Enugu state breakdown below:

See the Abia state breakdown below:

1. Voter turnout

A key highlights is voter turnout, particularly in northern states which are recording higher rates than the presidential election. The table below shows the figures:

2. A broken duopoly

So far, 13 out of 28 states have declared winners and two parties—APC leading with nine states and PDP following with three state wins—still dominated the results map.

Meanwhile, NNPP flipped Kano, consolidating its win from the presidential elections where NNPP's Kwankwaso won comfortably by securing over 60% of the state's votes. This is a deviation from 2015 and 2019, when Kano voted for Abdullahi Ganduje, the APC candidate, as its governor.

Will other parties claim more states, like in Abia or Enugu?

Stay tuned to Stears Elections as we monitor results.

Disclaimer: We understand that this election cycle has been marred by irregularities amidst credible reports of voter suppression and violence. LGA-level results are provisional and not to be taken as official election results.

With 20 of 23 local governments declared in the state, the PDP has won in all so far and looks set for victory.

See the breakdown below:

One issue that's important to highlight is the disruption in voting that happened in Asari-Toru local government on Saturday due to the inability to distribute election materials. The elections in the LG were postponed to Sunday 19th March, but there were further disruptions.

It is not known when or if the voters in that local government will be able to exercise their franchise. Asari-Toru local government lists 89,486 collected PVCs according to INEC figures.

In addition, Tonye Cole's campaign DG (the APC candidate in Rivers state), Chisom Lennard, was killed in Ahoada-West local government on Saturday while trying to prevent a ballot box from being snatched. 

Unsurprisingly, Ahoada-West and Asari-Toru where these incidents have occurred, are the only two local governments that are yet to declare gubernatorial election results at the state collation centres. 

With 12 of the 13 local governments in Ebonyi State reporting, the APC is leading in 11 LGAs. APGA follows with 2 LGAs, while PDP has claimed victory in 1 LGA.

See the breakdown below: 

In Kano state, voter turnout during the 2023 governorship election was 33.9%, down from 40.15% in 2019. 

Out of the state's 5,921,370 registered voters for the 2023 elections, 2,004,964 votes were cast in the governorship race, a marginal decline from 2019, where 2,191,430 people voted. 

However, gubernatorial turnout was higher than in the 2023 presidential elections, which was 29.5%. This trend is consistent with other Northern states we've covered, like Sokoto and Jigawa. 

Kano is one of the key races because the NNPP gubernatorial candidate, Abba Yusuf, was expected to win off the back of a strong performance by Kwankwaso (63.4% of the vote) during the presidential elections. 

In 2019, the Kano state governorship election was so close that it had to go to a re-run, where Abba Yusuf lost to the APC's Ganduje. But, delay is not denial, and the NNPP gubernatorial candidate was announced as the winner of the 2023 election.

All eyes and ears are currently on Adamawa because it could potentially produce Nigeria's first female governor (though no final results indicate this yet)

Collation was delayed over disputed results from the last LGA yet to announce (Furfore Local Government). Adding to the tension, thugs reportedly surrounded the centre at 2 am this morning. 

At 12pm today, collation is scheduled to resume, so we hope to hear an update on the final results soon.

In the 10 out of 16 LGAs declared so far, the PDP currently leads with 6 LGAs, the NNPP is close behind with 3 LGAs, while the APC has just 1.

The impressive performance of the NNPP candidate, Prof. Muhammed Sani Yahaya, is upsetting what many expected to be a two-horse race between the PDP and APC.

Interestingly, the ex-vice chancellor of Taraba state University was formerly in the APC and purchased the party's governorship nomination form. However, he later renounced his party membership after the primary process due to a "lack of internal democracy".

Taraba is a state rife with ethnoreligious tension, and Prof. Sani Yahaya is the only major contender who is a Muslim. 

With 6 LGAs left to go, if the NNPP candidate emerges victorious, he will be the first Muslim governor in Taraba since 1999.

Disclaimer: We understand that this election cycle has been marred by irregularities amidst credible reports of voter suppression and violence.

Results are coming in from the LGA collation in Delta state. At the moment, there are 21 announced LGAs out of 25. PDP leads with 18, followed by APC with 3.

Interestingly, the LGAs won by APC all fall under Delta-Central, the senatorial district and constituency of the APC governorship candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.