In a historic precedent, Labour Party has won six senatorial seats and 34 in the House of Representatives in the just concluded federal legislative elections, making it the third most popular party in the 10th National Assembly.
This was revealed at a meeting the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu held with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja yesterday.
In last Saturday’s elections, the chairman of the commission said winners had also been declared for 423 national legislative seats while supplementary elections would be held in 46 constituencies.
In the senatorial election, Yakubu explained that 98 out of 109 seats “have been declared. Seven political parties have won senatorial seats while in the House of Representatives, 325 out of 360 seats have been won by eight political parties.”
In terms of party representation for the 10th National Assembly, Yakubu said All Progressives Congress (APC) won 57 Senate seats; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 29; Labour Party (LP) six; Social Democratic Party (SDP) two; New Nigeria Peoples Party two; Young Progressives Party (YPP) one and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) one.
In the case of the lower chamber, Yakubu said the APC has 162 seats; PDP, 102; LP, 34; NNPP, 18; APGA, four; ADC, two; SDP, two; YPP, one.
Yakubu also said Certificates of Return would be presented to Senators-elect on Tuesday at the National Collation Centre (the International Conference Centre), Abuja, while Members of the House of Representatives-elect would receive theirs the following day, Wednesday at the same venue.
Compared to its phenomenal stride in the 2023 elections, the LP did not get a single seat in the 2019 National Assembly elections.
Four years ago, out of the 360 seats in the house, APC won the majority seats with over 211 members and PDP got over 111 members. The other seats were shared amongst the smaller parties.
For the Senate, the APC commanded the Senate majority with 64 senators, trailed by the PDP with 44 and the YPP with a single seat.
The figures have since changed with the series of defections in the 9th National Assembly.
The presidential candidate of LP, Mr. Peter Obi was able to galvanise the support of millions of youths, especially in southern Nigeria, in less than a year since he moved to the LP from the PDP.
Obi was adjudged by INEC to have lost the presidential election after having won 12 states, including Lagos and other former strongholds of the two previously dominant parties with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
INEC subsequently on Wednesday declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling APC winner of the contest, having scored 8,794,726 votes ahead of Obi; and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who scored 6,984,520 votes.
