The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, has emerged winner of the first online voting exercise conducted by Nigerian Concord Newspaper.
The poll is the first in a series of ten online voting exercises scheduled by the publication.
Other candidates featured in the ballot include Governor Hyacinth Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Matthias Byuan of the Labour Party (LP), Chief Sebastine Hon of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Hon. Herman Hembe of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Professor Terhemba Shija of the National Democratic Congress.
The voting exercise, which ran from Thursday through Friday morning, was monitored by the newspaper’s editorial team in Lagos State.
A total of 369 participants took part in the poll. However, 28 votes were invalidated due to instances of multiple voting, leaving 341 valid votes.
Of the valid votes cast, Aondoakaa polled 196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Governor Hyacinth Alia, who scored 84 votes. Hon. Herman Hembe secured 29 votes, while Chief Sebastine Hon, Dr. Byuan, and Professor Shija received 14, 10, and 8 votes respectively.
Following the collation of results, the chairman of the Nigerian Concord Newspaper Online Voting Monitoring Team, Prince Olukanye Eleko, declared Aondoakaa the winner, having secured the highest number of valid votes.
The newspaper announced that the next online poll among the six governorship candidates will hold on the 15th of this month.
