Mahmood Yakubu announces the final results and proclaim the election winner after combining the results from the various voting locations across the country.
This year, the nation's general election will be the seventh since democracy was restored. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) began the last round of results aggregation and declaration for the presidential election on Sunday.
The presidential election, which occurred on Saturday across the 36 states of the union and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, had 18 candidates. Violence, logistical concerns, the theft of BVAS, and other problems caused the election to be postponed till Sunday in certain voting places throughout several states.
Nonetheless, the election has been chiefly decided across the nation's 36 states and 774 local government districts. In addition, the ward, local government, and state results have been completed in several states where the election has been called.
The National Collation Centre in Abuja will begin accepting final tallies from INEC collation officers on Sunday at 6 p.m. State collation officials must present their findings.
Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of INEC, manages the activities at the National Collation Center and serves as the Chief Returning Officer for the presidential election. He will announce the final results and proclaim the election winner after combining the results from the various voting locations across the country.
The final collation, which INEC had earlier stated would begin at noon, has now been postponed till Sunday at 6:00 p.m.
This year, the nation's general election will be the seventh since democracy was restored. Elections were held consecutively in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019.
Considered the most closely contested poll in Nigeria's current political history, this year's votes had 18 registered parties to be voted for.
Four, though, are regarded as front-runners. These are Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Bola Tinubu of the APC, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP.
A candidate must get the most votes and at least 25% of the votes cast in 25 states (two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states plus the federal capital, Abuja) to be declared the winner.
However, in the Early hours of March 1st, 2023, the result was released by the INEC Chairman as shown below:
FINAL RESULT OF THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AS PRESENTED BY THE INEC CHAIRMAN AT THE COLLATION CENTRE ON WEDNESDAY, 1ST MARCH, 2023
TOTAL REGISTERED VOTERS 93,469,008
ACCREDITED VOTERS 25,286,616
A 61,014
AA 14,542
AAC 14,608
ADC 81,919
ADP 43,924
APC 8,794,726
APGA 61,966
APM 25,961
APP 12,839
BP 16,156
LP 6,101,533
NNPP 1,496,687
NRM 24,869
PDP 6,984,520
PRP 72,144
SDP 80,267
YPP 60,600
ZLP 77,665
TOTAL VALID VOTES 24,025,940
TOTAL REJECTED VOTES: 939,278
TOTAL VOTES CAST 24,965,218
This crowns Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress as the 2023 presidential election winner.