Nigerian Election 2023: Voting Ongoing After Ballot Disruption
Voting is ongoing in the Nigerian 2023 national election after technical and other glitches prevented voting from taking place as scheduled on Saturday.
Vote counting was already underway in other places during the historically tight race between three frontrunners competing for the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation.
Nearly 90 million voters were eligible to vote in Saturday’s election, which was largely peaceful, although isolated violence, delays and technical hitches forced many to wait until the evening, or Sunday, to vote.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is finishing his second term, presided over widespread insecurity, joblessness and growing poverty and many Nigerians hope a new leader can do a better job, according to Al Jazeera‘s Haru Mutasa.
Presidential Candidates:
1). Former Lagos governor and APC candidate Bola Tinubu, 70,
2). Former vice president and PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, 76. He is on his sixth bid for the presidency.
3). Labour’s Peter Obi.
This is the first time since the end of military rule in 1999, a third-party candidate has challenged the APC and PDP dominance.
Major Updates by The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC):
a). Several Lagos polling booths were ransacked on Saturday.
b). Voter ID machines were stolen in other states
c). Voting at 141 polling units in southern Bayelsa State was to take place on Sunday after the ballot was disrupted.
d). Election would continue in several wards in Yenagoa and where there were cases of election officers and materials failing to turn up on Saturday.
e). Official nationwide results could be expected late on Sunday.
f) The final election tally is expected within five days.
The three-way race has some analysts forecasting an unprecedented, second-round run-off between the two frontrunners if no candidate emerges as a clear winner.
To win, a candidate must get the most votes but also win 25 per cent in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
If no candidate wins, a run-off will take place within 21 days between two frontrunners as shown in the picture above..
Voters also cast their ballot for Nigeria’s two houses of parliament, the National Assembly and Senate.
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