No less than 15 seats in the Senate and more than 100 in the House of Representatives have yet to be determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission seven days after the National Assembly elections held concurrently with the presidential election exactly one week ago (INEC).
However, the commission has ruled that some of the elections for the federal legislative seat were invalidated due to excessive voting and other irregularities, and new elections will be held in those cases.
Even though INEC is likely to hold new elections in certain situations, it hasn’t stopped members who have won their elections from starting to advocate for the positions of Senate president and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Yet, according to the most recent tally, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still two seats shy of a Senate majority.
A coalition of opposition parties is still in a position to prevent the APC from winning an outright majority because there are still so many House of Representatives seats up for grabs.
In the primaries held by their respective parties before the National Assembly election, about 55 of the 109 Senators were unable to secure return tickets.
While some candidates failed to get the tickets because they were vying for higher office, other candidates were defeated outright in the party primary due to factors like the zoning their respective senatorial districts.
