2023: It will be difficult to have clear winner on first ballot —Senator Hunkuyi

Kaduna State Governorship candidate for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2023 general elections, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, has said it will be difficult to have a clear presidential winner in accordance with the electoral guidelines on the first ballot.

He based his prediction on the premise that no political party, big or small, should be underrated as there might be surprises in the 2023 general elections in a free, fair and transparent election.

Speaking with  Kaduna based Journalists of national dailies at his Kaduna office on Wednesday, Hunkuyi was of the opinion that now that the presidential candidates are being given religious and ethnic colouration, any of the presidential candidates securing a 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 run off. Because the law requires some scores from the total votes cast minimum, 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 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 election, you need 25 per cent of votes in minimum of 25 states. So, go ahead and count. 

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“So, the responsibility of Kwankwaso and NNPP is to put up through a required credible alternative platform, a responsible government for the polity in Nigeria. The NNPP cannot arrogate to itself, neither can APC or PDP arrogate to themselves, that they must win the minimum required votes in the required number of states. 

He noted that Nigeria is too big a polity, it is a big pot, when boiling, you can never say, you can never tell, the polity is erratic. From where is APC going to gather what you are talking about? Count, look around. If you are talking about what the polity use to be before, it was just two parties, APC and PDP.

“If you are casting 100 votes, then 25 per cent would mean 25 votes of the 100 votes. But now, you have the APC, PDP, NNPP, Labour Party and other smaller parties.

“Nobody can arrogate to himself, if you take a hundred votes say in Lagos, yes, you can say maybe two parties may not get 25 per cent, maybe three parties may not get it and if you start going round, you will see that, two, three parties may not likely get the 25 per cent in more than 10 states. 

“Come back to APC itself, go to the East, plot the graph, come back to the North, plot the graph. A politician leaves his window open because he talks to every citizen because every citizen is entitled to a vote. If there will likely be a run-off, the strongest may require the weakest, the weakest may do with the strongest or choose to do with the middle cadre. 

“It is a complex arithmetic. Nobody will just close its own door and sit in his own house and become an highland not this polity, not this 2023 election. If Kwankwaso wants to win election, he may have to fraternize whether he likes it or not,” he stressed.