The 70-year-old Bola Ahmed Tinubu becomes Nigeria’s presidential-elect and will replace outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, who will leave office on 29 May 2023.
Editor’s note: This article is part of our 2023 election coverage. Follow our updates here.
After a disputed presidential election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu (All Progressives Congress) the winner.
To win the presidential election, a candidate must have the largest number of nationwide votes and must have won at least 25% of votes in 24 of the 36 states and the capital, Abuja. As at 3 a.m. today, Tinubu had won at least 25% of the vote in 27 states.
The 2023 elections have been criticized for electoral malpractice and voter suppression by both voters and opposition parties. As of yesterday, PDP and LP members demanded the resignation of INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu for ‘compromising the election results’. In response, INEC defended the election results as credible.
Of note, vote count this year was historically low. Until this election, the 2019 election had the lowest vote count on record at 34.7%. At 25.7%, early estimates suggest the 2023 election has overtaken the 2019 election as having the lowest vote count percentage since the return to democracy in 1999.
The 70-year-old Tinubu becomes Nigeria’s presidential-elect and will replace outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, who will leave office on 29 May 2023⎈
The views, thoughts, and opinions published in The Republic belong solely to the author and are not necessarily the views of The Republic or its editors. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editors by writing to [email protected].