The Independent National Election Commission, or INEC, has received praise from President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for how the general elections of 2023 were handled.
Tinubu made this call while giving his acceptance speech on Wednesday, minutes after he was declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
He said, “I want to commend INEC for a credible election. We recognize the election as credible and the international observers also acknowledged the credibility of the election.
“With this election, we have created the biggest democracy as Nigerians and we must be proud of that,” he added.
The INEC chair made the declaration on Wednesday at the National Collation Centre, Abuja.
Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates who took part in the election. He scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates, thus meeting the first constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.
He also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 25 states constitutionally required.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja, said Atiku Abubakar of the PDP came second in the election.
Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Only the top four candidates won the presidential election in at least one state. Each of Messrs Tinubu, Atiku and Obi won in 12 states while Mr Kwankwaso won only in Kano.
However, winning a majority of states is not a requirement for a candidate to be declared the winner of the election.
Meanwhile, Tinubu has advised his fellow contenders not to resort to violence, noting that they should seek redress in court.
Tinubu disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, minutes after he was declared winner of the 2023 presidential election.
He stated that he has utmost respect for the candidates who took part in the presidential election, as he extends hand of friendship to them.