Winning 50% votes should be mandatory for presidency – Chidoka

A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, has suggested that the Nigerian Constitution and electoral laws should be amended to make any presidential candidate who does not have over 50 per cent of total votes cast in a general election unfit for office.

Chidoka, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), made the assertion on Wednesday while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

He claimed that the votes secured by President Bola Tinubu in the last presidential election put him in a “serious minority” that made it difficult for him to push a “big agenda” like petrol subsidy removal and the unification of the foreign exchange windows.

The former minister suggested runoffs for presidential polls where no candidate scores over 50 per cent of the total vote cast.

“I think we need to amend our laws to make it that any presidential candidate who doesn’t make 50 plus 1 of the votes cast in an election should go for a runoff because election of a President as 33% of the votes keeps the President in serious minority that makes him difficult to push big agenda,” he said.