The main opposition parties in Nigeria are calling for a rerun of the country’s presidential elections in Nigeria, saying Saturday’s vote was marred by violence and rigging and that they’ve lost any confidence in the electoral authorities.
Election observers reported widespread failings by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the body responsible for conducting the elections in Nigeria, and a long delay in the release of the results, fuelling mistrust in the elections in Nigeria. While voting went undisturbed in some areas, several polling centres across the country opened hours late, and in some areas, elections in Nigeria had still not occurred as of Tuesday. Violent attacks and voter intimidation also marred the polls in some areas and disenfranchised voters during the elections in Nigeria.
The race in Africa’s most populous country was one of the hardest to predict and most tightly fought in years, with three prominent candidates vying for the presidency in the elections in Nigeria. It came at a vital moment for the country, following eight bleak years in which the economy has suffered and insecurity has become rife under outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) party’s candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is currently in the lead with 39%, according to preliminary results with votes still being counted in the elections in Nigeria. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar is second and Peter Obi of the Labour Party is third.
At a news conference in the capital Abuja on Tuesday, representatives from the PDP, Labour and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) were scathing about the conduct of the elections in Nigeria. The parties said they have no faith in the electoral process or the INEC and called for the removal of its chairperson, citing irregularities in the elections in Nigeria.
“The process was irretrievably compromised, and we’ve lost faith in the entire electoral system in Nigeria,” said Julius Abure, chairman of the Labour Party. “We demand that this sham of an election should be immediately canceled, and new elections in Nigeria should be announced.”
They alleged there was large-scale manipulation of votes during the elections in Nigeria and that a new electronic system designed to strengthen and speed up the voting process was compromised. They also alleged that photo evidence of vote counts, uploaded from each polling unit by local INEC officials during the elections in Nigeria, had irregularities.
On Tuesday, INEC chair Mahmood Yakubu said, “Let me seize this opportunity to assure Nigerians that we’ll do whatever we can within the law to review issues arising about the conduct of the elections in Nigeria. To review where a review is absolutely necessary.”
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used during the presidential elections in Nigeria for the first time was hailed by the electoral commission as an improved method to verify voters, using facial recognition and biometric data, and a faster way for electoral officials to post the results of the elections in Nigeria. INEC had promised to upload votes directly from each polling unit to its website and that it would boost the credibility of the results of the elections in Nigeria.
But many results of the elections in Nigeria were not uploaded for close to a day after polls closed. Opposition parties alleged the delay was due to political pressure on local INEC officials to falsify results of the elections in Nigeria.
The governing APC has said the presidential elections in Nigeria were credible and declared its candidate the likely winner.
Election monitors from the European Union said in a statement that a “lack of transparency and operational failures reduced trust in the process of the elections
Image Credit: Ben Curtis/AP
