Early poll wins for Buhari in Nigeria

The first results from Nigeria’s presidential vote have been declared.

So far, two of Nigeria’s 36 states have been declared, and President Muhammadu Buhari has taken the most votes in both of them. They are Osun State and Ekiti State.

Taken together, the president has 566,865 votes and his main rival Atiku Abubakar has 491,409.

The candidate with the most votes is declared the winner in the first round, as long as that person gains at least 25 per cent of the votes in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.

Nigerians went to the polls on February 23, with President Muhammadu Buhari (APC) expected to face a strong challenge from Atiku Abubakar (PDP) in the presidential contest.

It seems that over all the process went off peacefully, but there have been some incidents of violence and some irregularities have been observed.

And here’s a reminder of just how long that ballot paper was, from a polling station in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria:

The BBC’s Chris Ewokor has been at a polling station near the centre of the capital, Abuja, where voting has ended.

Now that counting has begun most voters have left but security and party agents are watching the process.

Voting went on peacefully, the correspondent adds.

BBC Igbo’s Ikechukwu Uzu-Kalu is in Aba, Abia state, south-east Nigeria, where at one polling station the counting of votes had already begun.

Results are expected to start coming in from Sunday and a final tally is likely by late Monday or early Tuesday morning. -BBC