Nigeria election results slow in coming

The earliest a winner has been announced is on the third day after voting in the previous two elections, but many had expect­ed a faster conclusion this time because of the introduction of an electronic result transmission system.

This was meant to increase transparency and make sure the results could not be altered by creating a digital version on the website of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

But many voters have accused electoral officials of refusing to upload the results at the polling units as they are supposed to. Officials complained of a lack of internet in some places to upload the results, but voters have shared videos and images where INEC officials refused to upload the results.

There have also been reports of disturbances at INEC colla­tion centres in some states, with some political parties on Sunday asking their supporters to go to such places to protect their votes.

A third-party candidate in Ni­geria’s tightly contested presiden­tial election has caused a major upset by winning in its biggest city, Lagos, results from state election officials showed.

The Labour Party’s Peter Obi narrowly defeated the ruling par­ty’s Bola Tinubu in his heartland, they say.

This is the first time since 1999 that a party backed by Mr Tinu­bu, a two-time Lagos governor, has not won the state. But Mr Tinubu has won three of the five other states declared so far.

He also won in his south-west­ern strongholds of Ondo, Ekiti and Kwara, narrowly losing to Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun state.

Mr Abubakar has also narrow­ly won the presidential election in Katsina, the home state of outgoing President, Muhammadu Buhari.

The results from Ekiti, Kwara, Ondo and Osun have all been con­firmed by the head of the Indepen­dent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at its headquarters in the capital, Abuja, however, the other results remain provisional.

Mr Obi’s apparent victory in Lagos, though a major breakthrough for a third-party candidate, is not necessar­ily a huge surprise. The city is home to many young, educated people, as well as a large Igbo community – all groups widely seen as backing his presidential bid.

But with 30 states and the capital, Abuja, still to be declared, it remains far too soon who might be elected Nigeria’s next president. —BBC