Frank Mba, a deputy inspector-general of police (DIG), says there has been a large voter turnout in the Edo state governorship election.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday, Mba, who is in charge of security for the election, said he witnessed a large voter turnout at some polling units visited.

“We’ve visited a couple of polling units, and so far, so good; we’ve seen a large turnout, but there are the places where the turnout was quite low,” Mba said.

The DIG also said the security situation during the election has been encouraging.

“For us, our major concern is the all-round security of the elections, and I am so far encouraged and impressed,” he said.

“In areas where we’ve received minor complaints, we’ve risen up to the challenge, and we’ve been able to fix those ones.

“We are still out to continue monitoring, and we are optimistic that all will end well.”

Seventeen candidates are battling for the votes of 2.2 million electorates in the race to succeed Godwin Obaseki, the incumbent governor of Edo.

Candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Labour Party (LP) are the major contenders in the election.