Each of the top three candidates in Nigeria's hotly contested presidential election claimed Monday, he is on the way to victory, when the first results came in two days after the ballot in Africa's most populous country. By Monday noon, only four of the 36 Nigerian states officially announced their results, three of which went to the ruling party's candidate, Bola Tinubu. The fourth was from the candidate of the main opposition party, Atiku Abubakar, won.
Peter Obi from the Labor Party was also traded as a top candidate. The announcement of the winner is expected on Tuesday at the earliest. In the last presidential election of the year 2019 it lasted four days, until the authorities announced the winner.
A runoff election takes place, if no candidate has at least a quarter of the votes from two-thirds of the 36 Nigerian states and capital as well as receiving the most votes.
The African Union Observer Mission said on Monday, that the voting in more than 80 % of the polling stations have delayed, mainly because of logistical problems, caused by Nigeria's currency exchange program. The redesign of the Nigerian banknote, der NairaMore, led to cash shortages across the country, and voters and poll workers faced difficulties on Saturday, to get to the polling stations. In some states, voters had to wait until late at night, to cast their votes, while other states continued voting on Sunday.
Observers from the African Union missions and the West African regional bloc ECOWAS said, the choice is general “encouraging” get lost, apart from isolated cases of violence, which suspended voting in some states.
After Tinubu's victory in Ekiti state, the incumbent party declared, she is on the right way, to stay in power.
“If the information, which we receive from different parts of the country, voices, we have every reason, to be optimistic, that our candidate will win”, party leader Abdullahi Adamu told the state-run News Agency of Nigeria.
The Labor Party also claimed, that she would win, although Obi has yet to officially win any of the first announced states.
“We are way ahead and already leading in 24 states”, said Yunusa Tanko, Labor Party spokesman. Your contestant Obi is the surprise leader in a race, which is usually contested by two candidates, as his popularity soared in the polls weeks before the election. The party blamed the election officials, not having been present in their strongholds, and said, that some of their supporters had been denied the opportunity to vote.
Since the full results have not yet been published, Analysts warn against it, that early unfounded declarations of victory would only increase public distrust of the electoral process and undermine the legitimacy of the elections.
“The claims of the three parties are aimed at this, to motivate their voters, who are prompted, to protect the ballot boxes from tampering. But the unfounded claims of victory increase the risk of peaceful or violent protests by disappointed voters”, so Mujahid Durmaz, Senior Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk analysis company.
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Sources: Associated Press.
