As poll results from Saturday’s presidential election are announced amidst opposition protests, Bola Tinubu of Nigeria’s ruling party has seized a commanding lead.
Bola Tinubu currently enjoys a lead of nearly 1.5 million votes after results from almost three-quarters of the states were announced.
Currently, 39% of the votes have been tallied in favor of Mr. Tinubu, a wealthy businessman and former governor of Lagos State.
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, has 31% of the vote, while Peter Obi, a third-party contender, has 21%.
Both Mr. Abubakar’s and Mr. Obi’s parties have demanded a rerun of the poll, claiming that the electoral commission’s inability to post the results to its website was evidence that the results had been tampered with.
According to many voters, the new electronic voting system, which was designed to speed up the process, had difficulties with the uploading of results.
However, there were several delays, with many voting places opening up hours later, and others were even stormed by armed individuals. Voting took place over the weekend and on Sunday in several places.
The electoral commission is moving forward with the results release while stating that the opposition parties should file legal concerns.
To be considered the winner, a candidate must receive the most votes nationwide and at least 25% of the votes cast in 25 of the 36 states, plus Abuja.
The top two candidates will face off in a run-off if those standards are not met.
Mr. Tinubu has achieved that goal in 24 states thus far.
President Muhammadu Buhari is leaving office after two terms marked by economic stagnation, rising insecurity across the country, an Islamic insurgency in the north-east, a wave of kidnappings for ransom, and separatist attacks in the south-east.
Although Mr. Tinubu appears to have succeeded in organizing his followers to cast ballots, the election has been perceived as a referendum on his tenure in office.
Before the national collation center in Abuja, the nation’s capital, angry protesters attacked the electoral commission, also known as INEC.
“Everything going there is all falsehoods, all lies, all lies… they are cooking up results,” one man told the BBC.
In a counter-protest, another group urged the election commission to “do your job” and urged Nigerians to “stand up for democracy.”
According to monitors from the European Union, the electoral body’s poor preparation and communication eroded confidence in the procedure.
Nigeria has been ruled by the All Progressives Congress (APC), the current government, and Mr. Atiku’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
For the first time, Mr. Obi ran for president and pledged to oppose the two-party system.
Young people, who make up a third of registered voters, support him in large numbers. There are 15 more applicants.
Election outcomes for the presidential and parliamentary races in Nigeria as of 2023
At the general election on Saturday, Nigerians cast their ballots. In addition to voting for senators and MPs in the House, there were 18 contenders for president.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria provided the information used by the BBC to compute the results.
2023 presidential elections in Nigeria
A contender must receive the most votes overall and at least 25% of the votes in each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in order to prevail in the first round (Abuja).
Last modified on February 28, 2023, at 21:58:11 (GMT +1) local time.
Provisional results from INEC
