Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was yesterday elected the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 general election. With his emergence as the standard bearer of the major opposition party in the country, Atiku is President Muhammadu Buhari's major opponent in the forthcoming presidential poll.
While the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) had on Saturday affirmed Buhari as its candidate at a non-elective national convention at the Eagle Square in Abuja, the PDP, at its national convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, held between Saturday and Sunday, declared Atiku winner of the keenly contested presidential primary. Atiku scored 1,532 votes to defeat 11 other aspirants to secure the PDP presidential ticket, making it the fourth time he would be contesting for the presidency. While announcing the results, chairman of the PDP national convention planning committee and Delta State governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, said Atiku's closest rival and Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, polled a total of 693 votes. According to Okowa, the next person on line is Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki who polled a total of 317 votes, while former Kano State governor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, scored 158 votes.
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