Buhari wins 2019 presidential election with difference of 3,928,869 votes
…As PDP points out discrepancies in figures
Four days after Saturday February 23rd presidential election, the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who is also the national returning officer for the election, at about 430AM, Wednesday morning declared incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari as winner.
Buhari, the candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 11,262,978 votes.
The results revealed that President Buhari, who beat his closest challenger, Atiku Abubakar with a difference of 3,928,869 votes, also floored other remaining 71.
However, representative of the PDP at the national collation centre, Chief Osita Chidoka called for the suspension of announcing the winner of the presidential election, pending when all the differences trailing the entire collated results are resolved.
PDP observed clear difference in registered number of voters and issues with total number of cancelled voters, saying there are serious mismatch with original figures and collated figures that need further explanation before going ahead with the final result announcement.
According to the PDP, hence the difference between the winner and closest rival (3,928,869) is less than the five million votes that are missing or are having issues of further explanations, going ahead to announce the result does not align with provisions of the Electoral Act as amended.
Business Hilights recalls that earlier on Monday when results started to trickle in, the PDP had alleged that the results being announced by the INEC had been altered and therefore are unacceptable to the party.
The National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, made the position of the party known at a press conference in Abuja, saying PDP was forced to take a stand and make the pronouncements at this crucial point because “our democracy is under threat of derailment.”
He alleged that the results being announced at the commission’s National Collation Centre in Abuja were different from the original results at the disposal of the party’s agents in polling units, wards and local government areas across the country.
PDP averred that both the officials of the commission and the agents of President Buhari’s government and that of the APC had allegedly tried to alter the course of history by disenfranchising voters through alleged cancellation and manipulation of figures for results already announced at polling units nationwide.
However, the INEC chairman went ahead to announce the result after giving a brief clarification that did not go down well with the position of PDP.
President Buhari, who was declared winner and returned as President-elect at about 4.30am on Wednesday morning by the INEC chairman, won the highest number of votes in 19 states including Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Lagos, Kogi, Kwara, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States.
Alhaji Atiku won in 17 states and the FCT. The states won by Atiku are Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Oyo, Ondo, Imo, Enugu, Edo, Ebonyi, Benue, Anambra, Adamawa, Abia, Cross River, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom.
Further analysis of the entire result showed that the states won by Buhari include all the seven states in the Northwest, four in the Southwest, four in Northeast, and four in North central.
Besides, Atiku won all the five Southeast states, all the six South South states, two in Southwest, two in North Central, and two in Northeast.
According to the presidential history of Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999, President Buhari will be the second president to be reelected since the return of democracy in 1999. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, elected on the platform of the PDP in 1999, was reelected in 2003. His successor, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, who was elected in 2007, did not complete his first term as he died in office. Yar’Adua’s former deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who was sworn into office in 2010, failed in his bid to secure reelection in 2015.
Another look at the National Assembly election results from across the states revealed that the APC had a clear higher lead in federal lawmakers with 86 out of 109 Senators (78%) and 248 out 360 Reps (68%) that will form the ninth National Assembly parliamentarians.
