On Sunday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the 2023 presidential election results for Ekiti State. The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Ekiti, Ayobami Salami, announced the results at the presidential election collation centre located at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.
Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged as the winner with 201,494 votes, followed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 89,554 votes. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) received 11,397 votes, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) got 264 votes.
INEC National Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, stated that the results for the other 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory would be expected by 11 am on Monday, and the collation of presidential election results would take place at four levels. This process involves the collation of results at the ward level, local government area level, state collation officers, and the Federal Capital Territory.
Yakubu urged political parties and media organizations to rely only on the official results released by INEC. The electoral chief also cautioned that the collation center would remain open all day and all night with short breaks. The election took place on Saturday in most of the 176,606 polling units in Nigeria, where 87.2 million voters with Permanent Voter Cards cast their votes for their preferred candidates.
The presidential election contest is among four strong contenders, namely Kwankwaso, Atiku, Tinubu, and Obi, all of whom have a large following and a numerical potential for succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari, whose two-term tenure ends on May 29, 2023.