Ondo 2016: The race, the candidates and the factors

Since the 2007 governorship election in Ondo State, there appears not to have been an election as anticipated as the forthcoming November guber poll in the Sunshine state. Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, reports that in spite of the presence of nearly 30 candidates and political parties in the race, the election is actually a three horse race between candidates of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and the newly revitalised Alliance for Democracy (AD).

IN the political history of Ondo State, apart from the 2007 governorship election, when the incumbent governor, Olusegun Mimiko, then of the Labour Party (LP), challenged the then governor, Olusegun Agagu, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and successfully dethroned the later, after years of legal tussle, the forthcoming gubernatorial election, slated for the 26 November, 2016 promises to be the most competitive.

Pundits say as the race to produce the successor to Governor Mimiko heats up, the stakes are getting higher and the contending political parties and candidates are leaving no one in doubt of their determination to win the coveted seat. While the ruling PDP insists there is much need for it to continue in government to protect as well as build on its many achievement in the last eight years, the opposition parties are of the opinion that the state is in dire need of new hands to steer it out of acute underdevelopment of the past years.

Consequently, the people are left to expect, and possibly make the best use of a contest that many analysts say, with the determination of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure a level playing ground, and the huge local and international awareness already created for the polls by the many controversies that trailed the primary elections of the two leading political parties, will be fiercely contested across the three senatorial districts.




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