With 13 states’ results yet to be announced following the February 25 presidential election, the exercise remains a three horse race.
Any of the three leading parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) could still pull enough votes to clinch the mandate of Nigerians.
What you should know: The President of Nigeria is elected using a modified two-round system. What this means is that in order to be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive a plurality of the votes and over 25% of the vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
If no candidate passes this threshold, a second round will be held between the top candidate and the next candidate to have received a majority of votes in the highest number of states.
During the the second round, a candidate must still receive the most votes and over 25% of the votes in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to be elected.
If neither candidate passes this threshold, a third round will be held during which only a majority of the votes will be required to elect a new president.
The current reality: As of 12:00hrs on Tuesday, the APC had won 7 states with 6,708,209 votes. The PDP had won 10 states with 5,359,613 votes, the LP had won 3,158,952 votes, and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) had won 1,428,011 votes.
None of these candidates currently has enough mandate to be declared winner of the fiercely contested presidential race.
In case you missed it: On Saturday, February 25, Nigerians across the country went to their polling units to cast their votes for their preferred candidates in the country’s presidential and national assembly elections.
The election saw a high turnout of voters across the country, especially young voters many of whom were voting for the first time. But the process was allegedly marred by cases of violence, technical failures, and election malpractices.
At the moment, the results are still being collated manually even as Nigerians across the country wait anxiously for a new president to emerge.