2023 Election: Atiku Didn’t Meet Conditions To Win Presidential Poll – INEC Tells Court
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has refused to meet constitutional requirements to be declared the winner. in the recent presidential election.
Urging the Presidential Election Appeals Court to reject the petition by Atiku and his party, the committee said that Atiku had failed to gain at least a quarter of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 36 states in the country. federal and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and as such cannot be declared a winner.
Contrary to the claims of the plaintiffs, INEC added that the election was held in substantial compliance with the Elections Act 2022 and was not affected by any corrupt practices.
The committee declared that the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, had duly won the election.
Recall that we reported that APC’s Tinubu collected 8,794,726 votes to beat Atiku who got 6,984,520 and Labor Party’s Peter Obi, who got 6,101,533. Atiku and Tinubu each won 12 states while Obi won 11 states and FCT.
Meanwhile, Atiku and Obi are standing trial against INEC declaring Tinubu the winner, but the election arbitrator tells the court that the FCT is not granted any special constitutional status as described in the wrongdoing of several political parties and candidates who have lost. election.
The committee stated that the All-Progressive Congress (APC) candidate had met all legal requirements to be announced as the winner.
He argued that a candidate does not need to receive 25% of the vote in the FCT to be declared a winner.
As to why he chose Tinubu as the winner, INEC said the APC candidate won 25% of the valid votes in 29 states of the Union. INEC added that when he was in the lead, he did not act in haste, as Atiku and PDP claimed when declaring Tinubu the winner.
He noted that Tinubu received 25% of the valid votes in 29 states, namely:
Ekiti, Kwara, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Yobe, Lagos, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Kogi, Bauchi, Highland, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto, Taraba, Borno and Rivers.
He added that the FCT, aside from being the country’s capital, “has no special constitutional status across the other 36 states of the Union” to require a presidential candidate to win at least 25% of the votes. votes in the FCT. before being declared the winner of the presidential election.
