The result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has put the fate of both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party hanging as both parties fail to beat the 25% mark stipulated by both the law and the electoral act.
According to the result, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi clinched the nation’s capital city.
With the results declared in the six area councils of the FCT, Gwagwalada, Abaji, Kwali, Bwari, Kuje and AMAC, with 478,923 accredited votes, Peter Obi secured 281,717 votes, Bola Tinubu of the ruling APC polled 90,902 votes while Atiku Abubakar of the PDP got 74,199 votes.
Obi who had been in an early lead since Sunday, when he took Bwari, Kuje, Gwagwalada, while the results of AMAC were awaited when the results came from AMAC he got his biggest chunk of votes, pulling 170,392 votes in the area council ahead of the candidates of APC and PDP who scored 29,596 and 26,407 respectively.
Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution provides as follows:
1) A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected, where, there being only two candidates for the election:
(a) he has the majority of votes cast at the election; and
(b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
(2) A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election:
(a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and
(b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
According to the results, Peter Obi got 58.823 percent of the votes while PDP got 18.981 percent and APC 15.493 percent.
With the result above and in line with the provisions of the constitution, non of PDP nor APC can be declared winner of the ongoing presidential election.