Section 66
Declaration of resultIn an election to the office of the President or Governor whether or not contested and in any contested election to any other elective office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast for each candidate and subjected to the provisions of sections 133, 134 and 179 of the Constitution, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate returning officer.
Cap. C23 LFN, 2004.In an election for the office of President or a Governor, the result is known by tallying the votes cast for each candidate subject to the provisions of sections 133, 134 and 179 of the Constitution.
Note:
Elections to executive positions such as Chairmanship of a Local Government Council,
Governorship and office of the President legally require spread of votes, in addition to scoring the
majority of or highest number of votes cast before a declaration is made.
Chairman of an Area Council:
A majority of the votes cast at the election; and
Not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds
of
all the Wards in the Area Council.
(Section 106, Electoral Act)
Governor:
Highest number of votes cast at the election; and
Not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the
local
government areas in the State.
(Section 179 of the Constitution)
President:
Highest number of votes cast at the election; and
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.
(Section 134 of the Constitution)
Where these conditions are not met, the Constitution further outlines how a return is to be achieved i.e., a run-off election between the two leading candidates and where this fails, a final round of election between the two candidates determined solely by majority of votes cast. See sections 134 (5) & 179 (5) of the Constitution
Note that: Elections and declarations for legislative offices only require simple majority votes.
On the Duty of a Returning Officer to Declare Results.
AISHATU AHMED DAHIRU & ANOR V. INEC & 2 ORS (SC/CV/1/2024) (Unreported) @ Pg. 10
The Supreme Court in emphasizing the illegality of a governorship election result announced by a person other
than the appropriate Returning Officer held thus:
“There is no doubt that the Electoral Act gives responsibility of declaring result on the Returning Officer of the
particular election and this responsibility does not inure to any other person no matter how highly placed within and
outside the commission. As was stated by the court below, this power is exclusively for the returning officer.
If some other person outside the returning officer announces the result of the election as done by the Resident Electoral
Commissioner in this case, such announcement and declaration will be illegal, null and void.”
ABUBAKAR ATIKU & PDP v. INEC, TINUBU BOLA AHMED & APC (CA/PEPC/05/2023) @ page 690
The Electoral Act made provision for declaration of results and the posting of results of the election in Sections 66 and 68 of the Act. By the law, results are declared by the counting of votes cast in the election, and in accordance with the Constitutional provision for the election of the President as in Sections 133 and 134 of the Constitution. The votes so counted and collated are the votes cast at the Polling Units.
NYESOM V. PETERSIDE & ORS (2016) LPELR-48597(CA)
The law is trite that the results declared by INEC enjoy a presumption of regularity. In
other
words, they are prima facie correct. The onus is on the petitioner to prove the contrary.
SALIK V. IDRIS (2014)15 NWLR (PT.1429) 36 at 53
It is a Returning officer who has the responsibility to make the return of an election. The
State Resident Electoral Commissioner cannot usurp the power and proceed to make an
alteration
of the result. He has no power to alter the result.
ONUGHA V. EZEIGWE (2011) 13 NWLR (PT. 1263) 184 AT 202 PARAS C-D
A Returning Officer is assigned with specific duties. He alone will announce the
constituency
results, declare the results and return a candidate in the election. It is also the
Returning
Officer who signs, stamps, declares and issues the certificate of return to a successful
candidate.
Sections 133, 134 and 179 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Paragraph 63, INEC’s Guidelines on the Conduct of Elections 2022 Making a Return/Declaration of Result for Presidential Election See Paragraph 78 for Return for Governorship Elections.
These two provisions in the Guidelines reinforce the provisions of the Constitution that require winners of elections to the said offices to satisfy the requirement of having the highest votes cast and required spread i.e., electoral two-thirds.
