2023 presidential election may slip into runoff, says senator Hunkuyi

 

The governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Kaduna State, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, says a run off polls may be needed to determine the winner of next year’s presidential election.

He noted that prevailing realities and dynamics might make it difficult to have a clear presidential winner in accordance with the electoral guidelines on the first ballot.

In his opinion, no political party should be underrated as a surprise could spring up in the 2023 general elections.

Speaking with selected media organisations in Kaduna, yesterday, Hunkuyi expressed the belief that now that the presidential candidates are being given religious and ethnic colouration, any of the presidential candidates securing 25 per cent in 25 states might be a herculean task in the first ballot.

“It does not appear any party today in Nigeria, including NNPP may make it in the first election. There might have to be a runoff. Because the law requires some scores from the total votes cast, in a required minimum number of states apart from simple majority scored.

“I feel no one party, no one candidate may be able to make it and that is why the laws of elections permit for a re-run.

“So, for anyone to say, because NNPP may not make it, which party then may make it? Am talking from the background of the politics in Nigeria today.

“You see, PDP and APC as the biggest of them all, but try to plot the graph, and when you do it, try to do it dispassionately. We have 36 states and to win the election, you need 25 per cent of the votes in a minimum of 25 states. So, go ahead and count,” he said.