2021 Anambra State gubernatorial election

2021 Anambra State gubernatorial election

← 2017 6 November 2021[a] 2025 →
Turnout	10.3% ( 11.5pp)
Nominee Charles Soludo Valentine Ozigbo Party APGA PDP Running mate Onyekachukwu Ibezim Lilian Enemo Popular vote 112,229 53,807 Percentage 46.47% 22.28%   Nominee Andy Uba[b] Ifeanyi Ubah Party APC YPP Running mate Emeka Okafor[b] Okechukwu Eze Popular vote 43,285 21,261 Percentage 17.92% 8.80%
LGA results Soludo:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70% Ozigbo:      40–50% Ubah:      40–50%
Governor before election Willie Obiano APGA Elected Governor Charles Soludo APGA

The 2021 Anambra State gubernatorial election took place on 6 November 2021,^[a][1] to elect the Governor of Anambra State. Incumbent APGA Governor Willie Obiano was term-limited and could not seek a third consecutive term. APGA nominee, former Central Bank Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, retained the office for APGA with a 24% win over PDP nominee, former Transcorp CEO Valentine Ozigbo.

The primaries were scheduled for between June 10 and July 1, however, ensuing litigation and conflicting court rulings over primary results caused months of uncertainty over the legitimate nominees.^[2] In the primaries of the major parties, the APC controversially nominated former Anambra South Senator Andy Uba in a direct primary (until the primary was annulled in December 2021^[b]) while the YPP nominated incumbent Anambra South Senator Ifeanyi Ubah; the other two major Anambra parties (APGA and PDP) had multiple parallel primaries with later litigation to determine the legitimate nominee. INEC listed Soludo as APGA nominee in August and Ozigbo as PDP nominee in September due to court orders.

The general election was mostly peaceful but faced difficulties with expectedly low turnout, malfunctioning election equipment, and a few voided results, most notably with the election in Ihiala LGA being cancelled and rescheduled due to irregularities and insecurity. By the night of November 7, Soludo had entered into a large lead of about 52,000 votes over Ozigbo in second; however, the election was declared inconclusive by INEC Returning Officer Florence Obi due to the cancelled election in Ihiala. Ihiala's rescheduled election was set for November 9 with the results being needed before a winner could be declared.^[3] After Ihiala voted and it was won by Soludo, INEC declared him the victor in the early morning of November 10. In total, Soludo got over 112,000 votes and 46.5% of the vote as runner-up Ozigbo obtained nearly 54,000 votes and 22.3% of the vote. In third, Uba^[b] received over 43,000 votes and 17.9% of the vote while Ubah came fourth with about 21,000 votes and 8.8% of the vote.

The election was the first major election where the Independent National Electoral Commission used the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVA or BVAS) device and transmitted results online with polling unit workers uploading results directly to the INEC results portal. The election was also the first to use new polling units formed by INEC in June 2021. Its results were confirmed as legitimate by observers such as diplomatic missions and nonprofit YIAGA Africa, which monitored the election and ran parallel vote tabulation to confirm the accuracy of the released results.^[4] However, third placed Uba (APC) challenged the results and, along with 10 minor candidates, filed challenges at the electoral tribunal.^[5][6][7] However, in the weeks afterward, one of the minor candidates withdrew his appeal and Uba's nomination was voided after a court ruled that the APC gubernatorial primary was illegally conducted.^[8][9]

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