HOW A CANDIDATE EMERGES AS WINNER IN NIGERIA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
With less than 4 days to the general elections, it’s important to know how Nigeria’s electoral system determines the winner of a presidential election after voting has been concluded and results collated.
The general notion is that a candidate emerges as winner when he/she has the most or highest votes. But that alone isn’t enough, neither is it the only criteria to wining an election. According to Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria:
i. a candidate must receive the highest number of votes cast in the entire country;
ii. at least one-quarter (25%) of the votes must cut across two-thirds of all the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT.
Here’s an example for better understanding. Let’s assume Peter Obi of the Labour Party needs 3 million votes to emerge as president. One-quarter or 25% of those votes must come from 24 of the 36 states of Nigeria irrespective of region — including the FCT. This means even if Peter Obi has the highest votes of, say, 3 million, BUT those votes don’t cut across 24 states, Peter Obi is not the winner.
Furthermore, in a situation where no candidate meets those two criteria above, the Constitution provides that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) carry out a run-off election between the top two contenders. When that is the case, only two candidates will be on the ballot for the elections: (1) the candidate who secures the most votes at the initial elections; and (2) the candidate who gains the majority of votes in the highest number of states.
However, it’s worthy of note that since the return of democracy in 1999, no second round of voting has ever been held — all previous presidential elections ended with a clear winner in the first round, but this is the first time political pundits are foreseeing a run-off probably between the LP and the APC, or the LP and the PDP.
Next article will be an explanation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and how it guarantees transparent, free, fair, and credible elections.
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