Nigerians are nonetheless voting in a nationwide election in a number of elements of the nation the place technical and different glitches prevented voting from going down as scheduled on Saturday.
Vote counting was already below method somewhere else through the traditionally tight race between three frontrunners competing for the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation.
Practically 90 million voters have been eligible to vote in Saturday’s election, which was largely peaceable, although remoted violence, delays and technical hitches pressured many to attend till the night, or Sunday, to vote.
After two phrases below President Muhammadu Buhari, many Nigerians hope a brand new chief can do a greater job of tackling the widespread insecurity, joblessness and rising poverty afflicting their nation.
The election pits former Lagos governor and APC candidate Bola Tinubu, 70, towards his outdated rival, former vice chairman and PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, who at 76 is on his sixth bid for the nation’s prime job.
However for the primary time for the reason that finish of navy rule in 1999, a third-party candidate, Labour’s Peter Obi, has challenged the APC and PDP dominance with a marketing campaign message of change.
A number of Lagos polling cubicles have been ransacked on Saturday, in keeping with the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), voter ID machines have been stolen in different states and voting at 141 polling models in southern Bayelsa State was to happen on Sunday after the poll was disrupted.
Reuters information company reported individuals casting their votes at polling stations in Yenagoa metropolis, in Nigeria’s oil-producing south, on Sunday.
“The entire course of is an absolute mess,” Preye Iti, a 60-year-old civil servant, stated earlier than voting in Yenagoa, the place voting couldn’t happen in some elements on Saturday as a result of election officers and supplies didn’t arrive on time.
“I waited from 8:30am to six:30pm yesterday. Now I am again right here at 8:30am once more.”
In addition to Yenagoa, voting was additionally anticipated to proceed in some elements of northeastern Borno state on Sunday, the place voting machines didn’t work yesterday.
Three-way race
The electoral fee stated late on Saturday that elections would proceed in a number of wards in Yenagoa and the place there have been circumstances of election officers and supplies failing to show up on Saturday.
It added that official nationwide outcomes may very well be anticipated late on Sunday. The ultimate election tally is anticipated inside 5 days.
Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Enugu within the southeast, stated one of many most important points on individuals’s minds is the state of the economic system.
“Issues are comparatively calm all throughout Nigeria,” she stated. “Life is tough as individuals attempt to take care of the excessive value of dwelling. A whole lot of markets are open now and persons are going about their enterprise, attempting to make ends meet, hoping that whoever wins this election will flip across the economic system.”
For Francis Ofungo, a 23-year-old college pupil, the economic system is “of paramount significance”.
“We’re optimistic that when the election outcomes [are announced]the candidates will work on the economic system so it might develop and appeal to international funding in order that there will probably be jobs for the youth,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
The three-way race has some analysts forecasting an unprecedented, second-round run-off between the 2 frontrunners if no candidate emerges as a transparent winner.
To win, a candidate should get essentially the most votes but additionally win 25 p.c in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
If no candidate wins, a run-off will happen inside 21 days between two frontrunners.
Voters additionally forged their poll for Nigeria’s two homes of parliament, the Nationwide Meeting and Senate.
