Wrapup – Buhari Wins Nigerian Presidency

Muhammadu Buhari has been officially declared the winner of Nigeria's hotly-contested presidential elections, edging out incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan by more than 2.5 million votes.



"Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and stands elected," Attahiru Muhammadu Jega, the chairman of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), told a news briefing in the early hours of Wednesday.



He said Buhari commanded 15,424,921 votes out of a total of 28,587,564 valid votes cast in the elections, while Jonathan received 12,853,162 votes.



Jega added that 844,519 votes were rejected.



The election commission chief asserted that Buhari had obtained 25 percent, or more, of votes in 27 states.



According to the Nigerian constitution, the winner of a presidential race where more than two candidates are contesting must have the highest number of votes cast and no less than one-quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.



Buhari has won 21 states while Jonathan won 15 states and Abuja.



Jega, meanwhile, put the turnout at 52.2 percent of the nearly 56 million voters who had collected their permanent voter card and only 42.8 percent of the country's nearly 68.8 million registered voters.



Buhari has thanked the Nigerian people for choosing him over Jonathan and appealed for calm.



Jonathan has also conceded defeat and phoned Buhari to congratulate him.



Nigeria's newly elected president gets sworn in on May 29, which is the handover date of the outgoing president.



This has been a tradition taken up since 1999.



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