Türkiye may be considering an amendment to sections of her constitution which recommends the 50%+1 vote requirement in presidential polls.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hinted that “A step could be taken regarding this matter. It requires a constitutional amendment and we may take action after the elections.”
The historic presidential election in Turkey will go to a runoff on Sunday, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to have a substantial advantage against Kemal Kilicdaroglu after the third-place finisher said that he will support Erdogan.
Following a hotly contested first round of voting in which Erdogan received 49.52 per cent of the vote and Kilicdaroglu received 44.88 per cent, the two contenders engaged in even more fiery public discussions to establish their superiority as the candidate for the position of president of Türkiye.
The fact remains that both contenders are yet to meet the constitutional requirement of 50%+1 votes of the total votes cast in the presidential election to be declared winner of the democratic exercise.
However, the outcome of the presidential election held in Nigeria on February 25, 2023, is generating legal fireworks at the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) following the dissatisfaction registered by the two oppositions against the move by INEC to have announced a winner when none of the trio met the constitutional requirement to be elected as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The constitution says in section 134 (2) says: “A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where there being more than two candidates for the election: (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
Did any of the candidates meet this requirement? Should INEC have waited and called for a runoff election? Should the 25% requirement be altered from the constitution?
