Tinubu wins Nigerian presidential election, opposition speaks of fraud

01 March 2023 at 05:26

Bola Tinubu, the candidate of ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC), will be Nigeria’s next president, the country’s National Electoral Commission has announced. He succeeds his party colleague Muhammadu Buhari, who was not eligible for re-election. Opposition parties stated on Tuesday before the result was announced that fraud had been committed.

Seventy-year-old Tinubu received 8.8 million votes, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 6.9 million and Peter Obi of the Labor Party 6.1 million.

On Tuesday, the two largest Nigerian opposition parties indicated that they believe last weekend’s presidential election was not fair. Well before the final result was in, Labor and the PDP argued that the result had been manipulated and demanded that “this mock election” be canceled immediately.

In Nigeria, ballots are counted by hand. Then photos of the result papers are sent to the central electoral authority. Some of those photos are illegible and therefore invalid. Observers from, among others, the European Union say that the system causes logistical problems and is not transparent.

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