Nigeria

On 25 February, presidential elections were held in Nigeria to elect the new president and vice president. The results are as follows.

Electoral results
Bola Tinubu:8,794,726 votes, 36,61%
Atiku Abubakar:6,984,520,29.07%


About the electoral system

An altered two-round system with a maximum of three rounds is used to elect the president of Nigeria. A candidate must earn a majority of the national vote as well as more than 25% of the vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in order to be elected in the first round. The top candidate and the candidate who wins the second-highest number of states compete in a second round if no candidate surpasses this cutoff. A candidate still needs to gain the most votes nationwide and more than 25% of the vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to advance to the second round. A third round will be held in which a simple majority of votes will be needed to win if neither contender clears this bar. The 109 senators are chosen by first-past-the-post voting from 109 single-seat constituencies (three in each state and one for the Federal Capital Territory). First-past-the-post voting is also used in single-member areas to elect the House of Representatives' 360 members. The election of governors follows a modified two-round system, just as that of the president. A candidate needs to receive more than 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the state's local government regions in addition to the majority of the vote in order to be elected in the first round. A second round will be held between the top contender and the next person to win a majority of votes in the most local government areas if no one clears this criteria.


Selected articles

2023 Presidential race: Atiku wins PDP ticket, 29 May,2022 (The Sun)
2023 Nigeria election 2023: As it happened, 26 February, 2022 (Deutche Welle)