Nigeria will choose new president today
2023.02.26 08:51
Nigeria will choose new president today
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – On Sunday, Nigerians continued to vote in a national election in a few areas where technical and other issues prevented voting from taking place as scheduled the day before.
After the presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, counting the votes had already begun in other locations.
Candidates from two parties that have alternated in power since the end of army rule in 1999 faced an unusually strong challenge from a minor party candidate popular among young voters, making the race to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari expected to be the closest in the country’s history.
A Reuters journalist saw individuals projecting their votes at surveying stations in Yenagoa city, in Nigeria’s oil-creating south.
Preye Iti, a 60-year-old civil servant, said before voting in the city that “the whole process is an absolute mess.” On Saturday, voting could not take place in some areas because election officers and materials did not arrive on time.
“I waited yesterday from 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. I’m back at this location at 8.30 p.m.
In addition to Yenagoa, it was anticipated that voting would continue on Sunday in some parts of the northeastern Borno state where voting machines had failed the day before.
On Saturday, it was unclear how many of the country’s 93 million registered voters were unable to vote.
On Saturday, voting for the majority of the 200 million people living in the country went without a hitch. There were a few instances of violence and intimidation, but none on the scale of previous elections.
The electoral commission informed the public late on Saturday that official national results could be expected late on Sunday. Within five days, the final election result is anticipated.
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar, 76, of the Peoples Democratic Party, former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, 70, of the ruling All Progressives Congress, and former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, 61, of the smaller Labour Party, are the primary candidates for the presidency.
After winning two previous elections and serving the maximum eight years allowed by the constitution, President Buhari, a retired army general who was also a military ruler in the 1980s, is stepping down.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and most populous nation, will face a slew of problems no matter who comes out on top.
Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, an epidemic of kidnappings for ransom, conflict between farmers and herders, a lack of cash, fuel, and power, as well as deep-seated corruption and poverty, are all challenges facing the nation.
