Nigerian president comes closer to re-election, despite unrest linked to vote
Muhammadu Buhari took an early lead in the nation's elections, although there were reports of violence and electoral rigging, over challenger Atiku Abubakar
Although the election was postponed amid claims of vote rigging and dozens of people died in scattered weekend violence, by most indications, it appears that Nigerians have placed incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari in position to be re-elected.
Buhari, 76, who represents the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, won 57 percent of the vote in the southwestern state of Ekiti, which was the first to announce its results, Agence France Presse reports.
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By this morning, Buhari pulled ahead by four states to one, with 1,317,976 votes to former vice president Atiku Abubakar’s 1,173,437. Abubakar’s first win was in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Abuja, where he beat Buhari by a margin of nearly 108,000, according to Yahoo.
In order to secure a win, a candidate in Nigeria needs a majority of votes and at least 25 percent of support in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT.
In Saturday’s election, 72.7 million people were eligible to vote. Parliamentary elections were held at the same time.
The election marks the country’s sixth in the two decades since Nigeria returned to democracy after military rule. But the election was fraught with challenges – from the threat of violence, rigged ballots, a postponement, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blaming logistical issues which required the vote to go into a second day, as just a few examples.
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According to AFP, the European Union said there were “serious operational shortcomings,” which caused polling places to remain open late. Also, many voters waited in lines for hours with no clue when voting would even start.
The Situation Room umbrella group, made up of more than 70 civil society organizations observing the vote, immediately called for an inquiry into what it said was INEC’s “poor management” of the process, Yahoo wrote.
“The election has been a step back from the 2015 General Election and actions should be taken to identify what has gone wrong and what can be corrected,” according to the Situation Room.
Ethiopia’s former prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who heads the African Union observer mission, also said there were concerns about the “pattern of consistent postponement” on future participation and turnout among voters.
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