After a chaotically organised vote and messy count, the candidate of Nigeria’s incumbent ruling party has been declared the winner of the closest presidential election in decades
, the candidate of Nigeria’s incumbent ruling party, has been declared the winner of the closest presidential election in decades. Mr Tinubu, a 70-year-old former governor of Lagos and longtime kingmaker in Nigerian politics, took 37% of the vote, the electoral commission said on March 1st. This placed him ahead of Atiku Abubakar , a tycoon standing for the People’s Democratic Party , the main opposition, and Peter Obi , a wildcard third-party candidate representing the Labour Party.
The idea was to improve trust in the process. Many in Nigeria still have vivid memories of the presidential election in 2011, when perhaps 800 people were killed in clashes after the losing party cried foul. Yet numerous failures by the electoral commission have once again opened the way to allegations of rigging and malpractice. Opposition parties are calling for a re-run. There are worries that violence may ensue and the results will almost certainly be dragged through the courts.
Unhappy voters flooded social media with photos of results announced at their polling stations, attempting to show discrepancies with those announced at higher levels. Party officials also shared pictures of handwritten forms that appeared to be scribbled over and rewritten. At a Lagos collation centre one Labour Party official complained that her colleague signed the results at gunpoint. In Rivers state the electoral officer paused the count after receiving death threats.
As is often the case in Nigerian elections, the opposition will almost certainly seek redress from the courts. Evidence from social media and independent monitors could prove crucial to their case. There will probably be particular scrutiny of some close results in states where Mr Tinubu barely scraped over the threshold of 25% that any candidate needs to cross in at least two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the federal capital to avoid a run-off.
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