1979 Nigerian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Nigeria on 7 July 1979 for the first time since 1964 to elect a Senate and House of Representatives on 14 July. The result was a victory for the National Party of Nigeria, which won 36 of the 95 Senate seats and 168 of the 449 House seats. ^[1] It formed a coalition with the Nigerian People's Party in order to gain a majority. ^[2] Voter turnout was just 30.7% in the House election. ^[3]

Electoral system

Members of both houses were elected using the single-member plurality electoral system. Each State was divided into five districts, each of which elected a Senator. Each State was also allocated a number of seats in the House of Representatives based on its proportion of the population. ^[4]

Results

Senate

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	National Party of Nigeria	4,032,329	32.75	36
	Unity Party of Nigeria	2,835,362	23.03	28
	Nigerian People's Party	2,145,859	17.43	16
	Great Nigeria People's Party	1,847,019	15.00	8
	People's Redemption Party	1,453,538	11.80	7
Total		12,314,107	100.00	95
Total votes		12,532,195	–
Registered voters/turnout		48,633,782	25.77
Source: Nohlen et al.

Results by state

State	NPN	UPN	NPP	GNPP	PRP
Anambra	0	0	5	0	0
Bauchi	5	0	0	0	0
Bendel	1	4	0	0	0
Benue	5	0	0	0	0
Borno	1	0	0	4	0
Cross River	3	0	0	2	0
Gongola	1	2	0	2	0
Imo	0	0	5	0	0
Kaduna	3	0	0	0	2
Kano	0	0	0	0	5
Kwara	3	2	0	0	0
Lagos	0	5	0	0	0
Niger	5	0	0	0	0
Ogun	0	5	0	0	0
Ondo	0	5	0	0	0
Oyo	0	5	0	0	0
Plateau	1	0	4	0	0
Rivers	3	0	2	0	0
Sokoto	5	0	0	0	0
Source: Oyediran

House of Representatives

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	National Party of Nigeria	5,325,680	35.6	168
	Unity Party of Nigeria	3,691,553	24.6	111
	Nigerian People's Party	2,391,279	16.0	78
	People's Redemption Party			49
	Great Nigeria People's Party			43
Total				449
Total votes		14,941,555	–
Registered voters/turnout		48,633,782	30.72
Source: Nohlen et al.

By state

State	NPN	UPN	NPP	GNPP	PRP
Anambra	3	0	26	0	0
Bauchi	18	0	1	1	0
Bendel	6	12	2	0	0
Benue	18	0	1	0	0
Borno	2	0	0	22	0
Cross River	22	2	0	4	0
Gongola	5	7	1	8	0
Imo	2	0	28	0	0
Kaduna	19	1	2	1	10
Kano	7	0	0	0	39
Kwara	8	5	0	1	0
Lagos	0	12	0	0	0
Niger	10	0	0	0	0
Ogun	0	12	0	0	0
Ondo	0	22	0	0	0
Oyo	4	38	0	0	0
Plateau	3	0	13	0	0
Rivers	10	0	4	0	0
Sokoto	31	0	0	6	0
Source: Oyediran

References

1. Elections in Nigeria African Elections Database
2. Nigeria Inter-Parliamentary Union
3. Dieter Nohlen, Michael Krennerich & Bernhard Thibaut (1999) Elections in Africa: A data handbook, p707 ISBN   0-19-829645-2
4. Oyediran, Oyeleye (1981). The Nigerian 1979 elections . Illupeju, Lagos: Macmillan Nigeria. ISBN   0333317858.