Nigeria’s electoral authority published results from just 19% of polling stations a day after elections in Africa’s most populous country, prompting observers to censure the agency for the slow progress.
(Bloomberg) —
Nigeria’s electoral authority published results from just 19% of polling stations a day after elections in Africa’s most populous country, prompting observers to censure the agency for the slow progress.
The Independent Nigerian Electoral Commission’s website showed results from only 33,839 of the 176,846 polling stations, which were supposed transmit the count as soon as they were tallied, as of 12:13 p.m. local time on Sunday.
“The delay in uploading the results undermines public confidence in the results-transmission process,” Yiaga Africa, a nonprofit monitoring the election process, said in a statement on Sunday. “Thus far, the 2023 presidential elections are once again a missed opportunity.”
Miscreants Destroy Ballot Boxes (Feb. 26, 11:38 a.m.)
In some polling stations including in an area south of the capital Abuja, miscreants destroyed ballot boxes and other election material.
That prompted officials to upload a note to say the “election was declared not contested,” instead of the results to the INEC website.
Infighting in Rivers State Ruling Party May Help Obi (Feb. 25, 6:26 p.m.)
Infighting between leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, which rules the biggest state in Nigeria’s oil-producing region, is likely to help Peter Obi, the presidential aspirant for the upstart Labour Party.
The outgoing governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, refused to back Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate. Abubakar’s supporters accused Wike of undermining their campaign and secretly backing ruling-party nominee Bola Tinubu in the race. The governor denied the allegations.
“All I can say is it’s to our advantage,” said Beatrice Itubu, who is running on Labour’s ticket to succeed Wike as governor.
Billionaire Dangote Is Impressed (Feb. 25, 5:13 p.m.)
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, said the turnout in the election was the highest he’d seen in more than two decades.
“The turnout is very, very impressive,” he told Channels TV after voting in the commercial hub, Lagos. “I’ve been voting since 1999 when we returned to democracy and this time around I’ve seen much more than the usual times.”
Dangote’s comments echo similar statements made by World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Voting Draws to Close, Ballot Count Begins (Feb. 25, 4:28 p.m.)
Nigeria’s electoral commission ruled out extending the time for citizens to cast their ballots, saying polling stations wouldn’t accept those who arrived after 2:30 p.m. local time on Saturday. That’s despite countrywide delays and some polling stations not opening until hours after the official start time.
By 4:30 p.m. officials were done counting ballots at some sites, while others had hundreds of people in line waiting to cast theirs.
“As Nigerians are aware, the prevailing context for the conduct of the election is a bit challenging, but there is also a shared determination on the part of the commission to ensure that the elections hold, and that they’re free, fair and credible,” Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent Nigerian Electoral Commission, said at a press conference in Abuja, the capital.
President Buhari Reveals Vote (Feb. 25, 3 p.m.)
Video footage showed outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari presenting his ballot paper to onlookers in the northern Katsina state. A statement emailed by Buhari’s spokesman confirmed he had “displayed” the document with a “thumb print” for Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, before depositing it in a ballot box.
The West African nation’s electoral law requires a secret ballot, saying no-one should “communicate at any time to any other person information obtained in a polling unit as to the candidate to whom a voter is about to vote or has voted for.”
Violators are liable to receive a 100,000-naira ($217) fine or a three-month prison sentence. It’s unclear whether the provision applies to those who reveal their own votes.
Bright Side of Nigeria’s Cash Shortage: Vote Buying Declines (Feb. 25, 2:15 p.m.)
Vote buying have been standard in most Nigerian elections, with scenes of party operatives handing out anything from 500 naira to 10,000 naira in notes to voters commonplace outside polling stations.
But this year is different — an acute shortage of naira notes that has crippled Africa’s biggest economy in the run-up to the election seems to have sapped political parties’ ability to dispense cash. There wasn’t a bill to be seen at one polling unit in the Maitama neighborhood in the capital, Abuja, that was the scene of blatant payments during the 2019 election.
The nation’s electoral commission has vowed to fight vote buying and there have been television advertisements supported by the MacArthur Foundation, a US nonprofit, exhorting voters not to take cash.
Glitches Dog Voting Process (Feb. 25, 12:33 p.m.)
Voting was delayed by hours in many areas due to the electronic system to verify voters malfunctioning and election workers arriving late.
Voters countrywide reported problems with the new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, or BVAS, which is meant to smooth out the electoral process. Instead, many of the devices, which don’t need internet connection, weren’t accrediting citizens — and the governor of oil-rich Rivers State in the southeast.
Nyesom Wike was seen waiting 20 minutes to cast his ballot in the state capital, Port Harcourt, while a person mopped sweat from his brow. He was asked to come back later while more than 100 people remained in the queue behind him. World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala tweeted about her wait time at another polling unit.
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