The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that a presidential candidate in Nigeria’s electoral process is not required to secure 25% of the votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to be declared the winner.
Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC’s lawyer while responding to petitions against the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the 2023 presidential election, stated that Tinubu met all the legal requirements to be announced winner of the election.
He argued that Tinubu, having scored 25% of the valid votes cast in 29 states, satisfied the requirement of the constitution to be declared the winner, and that the requirement of having 25% of the valid votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory was not necessary.
He also noted that the Federal Capital Territory is regarded as one of the 37 states of the federation, and a candidate needs to score 25% of the valid votes cast in at least two-thirds of 37 states to be declared the winner in the presidential election.
“Having scored at least one-quarter of the valid votes cast in 29 states, which is over and above the 2/3 states threshold required by the constitution, in addition to scoring the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election, the 2nd respondent was properly declared the winner and returned as the president-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” INEC said.
INEC further maintained that the election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act of 2022 and was not marred by any corrupt practices.
It argued that Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to fulfill the constitutional requirement to be declared the winner of the election and, therefore, cannot be declared the winner by the tribunal.
“Having satisfied the requirements of Section 134 (2) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the return of the 2nd respondent as the winner of the presidential election conducted on 25th February 2023 is lawful, valid, and constitutional,” INEC added.
“The petitioners neither scored the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election nor scored not less than one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory and therefore the 1st petitioner (Atiku) is not entitled to be returned as the winner of the presidential election conducted on Feb. 25.”
Atiku and the PDP had approached the tribunal seeking the nullification of the election that produced Tinubu, alleging that he was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast during the poll and that INEC violated its own regulations and provisions of the Electoral Act in the election conduct.
They are praying to the court for an order mandating INEC to retrieve the certificate of return issued to the APC candidate or, in the alternative, conduct a fresh election.
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