‘President Should Have Over 50% Votes’ –  Tinubu Told Ahead Of Tribunal Judgement

‘President Should Have Over 50% Votes’ –  Tinubu Told Ahead Of Tribunal Judgement

‘President Should Have Over 50% Votes’ –  Tinubu Told Ahead Of Tribunal Judgement

Osita Chidoka, a prominent figure in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a former Minister of Aviation, has proposed an amendment to the Nigerian Constitution and electoral laws.

He suggests that any candidate running for the presidency who doesn’t secure over 50% of the total votes cast in an election should be deemed unfit for office.

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Chidoka, who is an ally of PDP’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and was part of the party’s Presidential Campaign Council in the February 25, 2023 election, shared his views on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program.

He recommended the implementation of runoff elections for presidential polls in cases where no candidate obtains more than 50% of the total votes cast.

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This, he believes, would ensure that the elected president has a broader mandate and greater legitimacy.

Chidoka emphasized that a situation where a president is elected with only 33% of the votes places them in a “serious minority” position. Such a scenario, he argued, could hinder their ability to pursue significant policy agendas, such as the removal of petrol subsidies and the unification of foreign exchange windows.

During the February election, Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won in 12 out of Nigeria’s 36 states and garnered the highest number of votes—8,794,726 out of the total 24,025,940 votes cast. Atiku Abubakar secured 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) gained 6,101,533 votes. The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, finished fourth, with 1,496,687 votes.

According to Section 134 of the Nigerian Constitution, a presidential candidate can only be declared the winner if they have the majority of votes cast and have not less than one-quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of all states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Subsection 3 of the same section stipulates that if no candidate fulfills these criteria, a second election must be conducted.