Nigeria introduced some early outcomes from nationwide elections on Sunday, though a victor within the race to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari shouldn’t be anticipated for a number of days.
The vote in Africa’s most populous nation went forward largely peacefully, regardless of some ransacked polling stations and late begins at many others.
Practically 90 million had been eligible to vote on Saturday for a successor to Buhari, with many Nigerians hoping a brand new chief would do a greater job tackling insecurity, financial malaise and rising poverty.
Votes in presidential and parliamentary elections are collated in every of Nigeria’s 36 states earlier than the depend is transmitted to the electoral fee’s central tallying heart within the capital Abuja.
The primary outcomes, from Ekiki state, confirmed a majority of votes for president forged in favor of Bola Tinubu of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tinubu pulled in additional than 200,000 votes within the state, in opposition to lower than half that whole for Atiku Abubakar of the primary opposition PDP and simply over 11,000 for Peter Obi of the Labor Social gathering.
The chairman of Nigeria’s electoral fee (INEC) Mahmood Yakubu adjourned the session following the primary outcomes and stated the discharge of tallies would resume at 11am (10:00 GMT) on Monday.
Voting needed to be prolonged into Sunday in a couple of elements of the nation after glitches on Saturday, however counting has been underway since polls closed, with the ultimate tally anticipated inside 5 days.
It was not but clear if all voting within the West African oil-exporting nation had been concluded.
Earlier on Sunday, PDP’s candidate Abubakar had urged INEC to add the outcomes instantly after accusing some state governors of making an attempt to compromise the outcomes.
“It will likely be a disservice to Nigerians and a negation to democracy for anybody to subvert the desire of the individuals as freely expressed of their votes of yesterday,” he stated in an announcement.
When he was defeated by Buhari within the 2019 election, Abubakar claimed huge fraud. The Supreme Court docket finally tossed out his problem.
Labor Social gathering chairman Julius Abure additionally accused election officers of failing to add outcomes from elements of Lagos and southern Delta State to assist the ruling APC’s candidate.
Observers group Yiaga Africa stated it was “deeply involved with the delay” in outcomes.
However INEC stated issues with importing outcomes on its IReV information web page had been resulting from “technical hitches” and there was no threat of tampering.
“The fee needs to guarantee Nigerians that the challenges are usually not resulting from any intrusion or sabotage of our programs,” it stated in an announcement.
“You will need to keep away from statements and actions that may warmth up the polity right now.”
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Abuja, stated that the delays in importing preliminary outcomes by the electoral fee induced “lots of consternation” amongst political events, candidates and voters.
Primarily based on his assertion, the “electoral fee is worried,” Jamjoom stated.
“They wish to reassure residents that there isn’t a malfeasance at play right here, that that is solely a technical glitch. However I’ll let you know the longer individuals are ready right here, the extra we’re listening to type individuals in Abuja, that they’re apprehensive about what all this implies and the way the delay may influence issues going ahead within the nation.
“Persons are tense, they wish to get these outcomes, they wish to know who the following chief of this nation goes to be at such an important time.
The fee has 14 days to formally announce the outcomes, however the on-line tally needs to be made accessible over the following few days.
To win the presidency, a candidate should get essentially the most votes but in addition win a minimum of 25 p.c of votes forged in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
Some states are should win. Lagos has essentially the most registered voters at greater than 7 million, adopted by two states within the nation’s largely Muslim north, Kano and Kaduna states.
The aggressive race has some analysts forecasting an unprecedented runoff between the 2 frontrunners if no candidate meets election necessities. It must be organized inside 21 days.
