UPDATED: INEC Declares Tinubu President-Elect After Polling 8.7 Million Votes In Saturday’s Election 

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared winner of Saturday’s presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the chief returning officer of the presidential election, announced the two-time former Lagos governor as the winner despite opposition parties’ call for the cancellation of the elections over allegations that INEC failed to comply with the law in the collation and announcement of results. 

The electoral umpire had failed to comply with its own regulations and guidelines mandating electronic transmission of results from over 170,000 polling units to a central server known as the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) before the collation and announcement of the final results. 

After the conclusion of the state-by-state collation at about 1 AM on Wednesday, INEC declared that Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes from the 36 states and the FCT to emerge president-elect ahead of his closest contenders, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who secured 6,101,533 votes. 

Former Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, who contested the election on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

“That Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Yakubu declared, adding that the APC candidate would be issued with a certificate of return at 3 PM today (Wednesday).

While Tinubu won in 12 states, Obi won 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory.  Atiku won 12 states while Kwankwaso won one.

Per requirement of the Nigerian Constitution (1999), a candidate must secure a minimum of 25% of the total votes cast in 24 states and the FCT before he/she can be declared winner of a presidential election. 

Section 134, sub-section 3 of the Constitution instructs that “in default of a candidate duly elected in accordance with subsection (2) of this section there shall be a second election”.

Below are the final results of the 2023 presidential election as declared by INEC:

• TOTAL REGISTERED VOTERS: 93,469,008
• TOTAL ACCREDITED VOTERS: 25,286,616
• TOTAL VOTES CAST: 24,965,218
• TOTAL VALID VOTES: 24,025,940
• TOTAL REJECTED VOTES: 939,278

The votes scored by each party are as follows:

1. A – 61,014
2. AA – 14,542
3. AAC – 14,608
4. ADC – 81,919
5. ADP – 43,924
6. APC- 8,794,726
7. APGA – 61,966
8. APM – 25,961
9. APP – 12,839
10. BP – 16,156
11. LP – 6,101,533
12. NNPP – 1,496,687
13. NRM – 24,869
14. PDP – 6,984,520
15. PRP – 72,144
16. SDP – 80,267
17. YPP – 60,600
18. ZLP – 77,665