Presidency: Will Opposition Break The Jinx Today?

MAIN opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) is going into today’s presidential and National Assembly elections with two goals in mind. The first is to win the presidential election and the second is to corner two-thirds of the 109 senatorial and 360 House of Representatives seats to enable the party run a seamless administration as from May 29, 2015.

In the history of elections in Nigeria, no ruling party has lost power at the centre. A number of incumbent governors have failed to get re-election mandate. Oyo State is a good example where no incumbent has been re-elected.

President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari

President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari

However, at the national level, the ruling or leading party has always had the upper hand. At his lecture on February 26 at Chatham House, London, APC Presidential Candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), enthused that he was on his way to victory and Nigeria could join the ranks of African countries where the opposition won presidential elections and successfully took over as a plus for the growing democratisation of the African continent.

Experience in some African countries

Senegal, Mauritius, Ghana, Mali, Cote D’ Ivoire Lesotho and Benin Republic are some of the countries where some incumbents and ruling parties lost presidential elections to the opposition.

Senegal

In Senegal, there was outrage over the eligibility of President Abdoulaye Wade for a third mandate with regard to the 2012 presidential elections.

On February 26, 2012, the Senegalese electorate went to the polls amid heightened political tension over the Constitutional Court’s ruling that allowed President Wade to run for a third term. The election was inconclusive with Wade winning about 35 percent of the votes while ex-Prime Minister Macky Sall finished second with 26.58 percent.

There was a run-off on March 25, 2012 where Macky Sall resoundingly defeated Abdoulaye Wade. It was the second time in 11 years that Senegalese voters removed an incumbent president from office. Most of the defeated first round candidates endorsed Sall in the run-off. Abdoulaye Wade acknowledged defeat and congratulated Sall on his victory prior to the release of official provisional results.