2022 Ekiti State gubernatorial election
The 2022 Ekiti State gubernatorial election will take place on June 18, 2022, to elect the Governor of Ekiti State. Incumbent APC Governor Kayode Fayemi is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third term. The primaries are scheduled for between January 4 to 29 with the governing All Progressives Congress nominating former Secretary to the State Government Abiodun Oyebanji in a direct primary on January 27 while the People's Democratic Party nominated former Commissioner for Environment Bisi Kolawole in an indirect primary on January 26. Both primaries were plagued by  accusations of candidate imposition and were criticized by activists but both parties accepted the victors as their legitimate nominees. However, former Governor Olusegun Oni, who came second in the PDP primary, rejected the primary results before leaving the party and accepting the nomination of the smaller Social Democratic Party. Electoral system. The Governor of Ekiti State is elected using a modified two-round system. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive the plurality of the vote and over 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of state local government areas. If no candidate passes  this threshold, a second round will be held between the top candidate and the next candidate to have received a plurality of votes in the highest number of local government areas. Background. Ekiti State is a small, Yoruba-majority southwestern state with vast natural areas but facing an underdeveloped yet vital agricultural sector, high unemployment, and rising debt. The state also has to contend with insecurity with abated, but still present, conflict between herders and farmers in the state's rural areas. Politically, Fayemi's 2018 victory was a forerunner of the state's movement in the 2019 elections with  the federal elections being categorized by a massive swing to the APC as its presidential nominee Muhammadu Buhari won the state back after the PDP had won it in 2015. Legislatively the APC also gained ground, winning all two Senate seats, all six House of Representatives seats, and control of the House of Assembly. Ahead of Fayemi's term, his policy focuses included education, healthcare, infrastructure, mineral resources, and agriculture development. In terms of his performance, Fayemi was commended for taking steps towards fighting climate change and preserving the environment but was criticized for a poor response to the killing  of protesting students by his wife's security detail, denying constitutionally-guaranteed local government autonomy, and threatening to illegally dismiss striking health workers. Primary elections. The primaries, along with any potential challenges to primary results, are scheduled for between January 4 to 29. According to some candidates and community leaders under the group Ekiti South Agenda Forum, an informal zoning gentlemen's agreement sets the Ekiti South Senatorial District to have the next governor as since the 1999 return of democracy, all Ekiti governors have come from either the Ekiti Central or Ekiti North Senatorial Districts. However, neither major party  closed their primaries to non-Southerners or ended up nominating a Southerner. All Progressives Congress. Reports from early 2021 indicated that Governor Kayode Fayemi had told members of his Executive Council with plans to run for governor in 2022 to resign, as he wanted his administration to stay on task. These reports were confirmed in early December with Fayemi officially issuing a directive for any appointee planning to run for governor to resign by December 18. Rivalries within the APC, partially stemming from divisions during the 2018 gubernatorial primary, caused many internal crises between 2018 and 2021 culminating in South  West Agenda for Asiwaju (SAWGA), a pro-Tinubu APC faction, suing to stop the 2021 APC ward and local government congresses which were held anyway. Analysts viewed the Ekiti APC as volatile and in need of consensus agreements to bridge internal divides. One of the most major causes for internal strife was the alleged support Fayemi gave to former Secretary to the State Government Abiodun Oyebanji's gubernatorial candidacy. In November 2021, the APC announced that its expression of interest form would cost ₦2.5 million and the nomination form would cost ₦20 million with a 50% discount for  women candidates and candidates with disabilities. Initially, the party set its direct primary date for January 22, 2022 but the timetable was shifted in early January 2022 as the sale of forms was now to end on January 15 while the primary date became January 27. Allegations of candidate imposition by Fayemi sowed doubt in the primary's fairness in the days before the election, with reports that Fayemi successfully lobbied for Jigawa State Governor, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, to be appointed chair of the primary committee and allegedly bribed primary committee members with ₦1.2 billion to guarantee Oyebanji's  victory. Such extreme efforts were speculated to be connected to Fayemi's desire to have an ally as his successor to give a boost to his likely presidential candidacy. Further reports with photos of INEC officials dining with Fayemi at the Government House on the night before the primary led a Sahara Reporters APC source to contend that the "primary seems compromised already." The allegations were the catalyst for the withdrawal of all other APC candidates on the primary day as the seven aspirants called for the primary to be postponed due to its 'hijacking in favor of Oyebanji.' However , the primary committee secretary, Victor Olabimtan, said in a statement later on January 27 that the primary would continue as scheduled. When collation completed, Abubakar declared Oyebanji as the APC nominee after announced results showed Oyebanji winning nearly 97% of the votes cast with 59% turnout. In the days after the primary, both Ojo and Adeyeye declared their intention to challenge the results while Abubakar defended the primary's fairness and Oyebanji said his opponents should appeal to the yet-to-be-constituted primary appeal panel. Bamidele also said he would challenge the results before backtracking a few weeks later  while maintaining the belief that the primary was a sham. People's Democratic Party. In 2021, the primary race was seen as a proxy battle between former Governor Ayo Fayose (backer of Bisi Kolawole) and Ekiti South Senator Abiodun Olujimi (major candidate), who served as Fayose's Deputy Governor in 2005 and 2006. The primary was tracking be the culmination of a lengthy battle between the two over control of the Ekiti PDP along with being an offshoot of the wider battle between Fayose and incumbent Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde over control of the southwestern PDP. While the division  between Fayose and Olujimi was the main break in the Ekiti PDP, those two groups along with the Oni group (supporting and led by former Governor Olusegun Oni), the Eleka group (supporting and led by Kolapo Olushola), the Aribisala group (supporting and led by Adewale Aribisala), and the Adaramodu group (supporting and led by Kayode Adaramodu) all held significant sway in the state PDP.<ref name="APC lethargic/PDP crowd"></ref> Prior to the primary in January 2021, Fayose and Olujimi held a series of meetings, reportedly at the behest of newly elected national PDP Chair Iyorchia Ayu, to resolve their dispute . The reconciliation meetings led to speculation that other candidates would be sidelined in favor of an agreement between Fayose and Olujimi. In early November 2021, the PDP had formed an eight-member screening committee to review all prospective candidates on 8 November at the PDP National Secretariat in Abuja. On January 5, the PDP rescheduled its primaries from January 28 to January 26. Upon the January 15 ward congresses to elect delegates for the primary, Olujimi (along with fellow candidates Lateef Ajijola, Adewale Aribisala, Kolapo Olusola, and Olusegun Oni) rejected the results and accused Fayose of hijacking the exercise. To  avoid complete crisis, the national PDP annulled the ward congresses two days before the election and stated that the primary will use statutory/automatic delegates lists instead. Despite the nullification of the ward congresses, on primary day, disputes between different camps led to violence breaking out at the election venue. Later on January 26, Olujimi withdrew from the primary, decrying the process' unlevel playing field and claiming that the delegate lists had been doctored. When collation completed, head of the primary committee and Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel declared Kolawole as the PDP nominee after announced results showed Kolawole  defeating former Governor Olusegun Oni and former Deputy Governor Kolapo Olushola by over 300 votes. The day after the primary, the national PDP set up a primary appeal panel chaired by its national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu which upheld Kolawole's victory after meeting on 28 January. The panel failed to reconcile the candidates with Oni leaving the party on 6 February 2022 while a few days later Olujimi said that she was considering defecting as well. Later that week, the Kolawole campaign formed reconciliation committees in an attempt to prevent further internal party strife and defections. Campaign. Immediately after the  primaries, analysts marked the election as a proxy battle between outgoing governor Kayode Fayemi (APC) and former governor Ayo Fayose (PDP) despite being the first Ekiti gubernatorial election since 1999 in which neither Fayemi nor Fayose are candidates. Kolawole and Oyebanji are both extensively connected to Fayemi and Fayose, respectively, leading to the labeling of the general election as a continuation of the power struggle between the two. However, the emergence of Olusegun Oni, a former Governor who came second in the PDP primary, as the SDP nominee turned the general election into a three-way race according to some  political pundits, adding even more uncertainty to the election. For both major candidates, the early parts of the general election campaign were dominated by attempts to address controversies around their respective primaries and unify their parties. For the PDP's Kolawole, he claimed that his main primary opponent Olujimi had not dropped out due to irregularities, instead that she wanted to "avoid being embarrassed [by losing]." Meanwhile, other PDP figures like Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel asked those defeated in the primary to support Kolawole while Fayose reached out to his rival Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde to campaign  in Ekiti. Similarly in the APC, Oyebanji asked his primary opponents to put aside their differences and work with him during the general election campaign. However, Ekiti APC Publicity Secretary Segun Dipe took a more abrasive tone, disregarding the other candidates’ allegation that Oyebanji supporters were named electoral officers by saying they merely knew Oyebanji and it was his popularity that won the primary, not fraud. For the minor parties like Accord, the crises in the major parties were seen as an opportunity to accrue support and compete in the general election. The major party discord also directly led to  the Social Democratic Party gaining Oni as its nominee after Oni claimed to have been cheated out of the PDP nomination. Pundits noted that regional unity, not just party unity, would also be required for successful campaigns. Candidates from the Ekiti South Senatorial District, which has never produced an elected governor, were passed over for major party nominations as Oyebanji is from Ikogosi while Kolawole is from Efon, both in Ekiti Central Senatorial District. Similarly, Oni is from the Central District, more specifically Ifaki-Ekiti. Thus it was expected that the major candidates would pick running mates from Ekiti South , although groups lobbying for a governor from Ekiti South preemptively compared southern politicians accepting a deputy slot to "Judas Iscariot." Oyebanji and Kolawole followed this expectation in choosing southerners (Monisade Afuye from Ikere-Ekiti and Kolapo Kolade from Emure, respectively) while Oni bucked the trend, picking Ladi Owolabi from the central Ado Ekiti. In April 2022, as the election neared, campaigning ramped up with Oyebanji announcing a six-point development agenda and Kolawole declaring his plans for a return to Fayose's stomach infrastructure policy along with vowing to combat insecurity. Oni also hit the campaign trail in April with  promises of a return to his governorship's policies but his supporters were attacked at a rally on April 6; the attack compounded with previous politically-motivated attacks in 2021 and 2022 led to fears of more electoral violence.