Nigerians are still waiting for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release the results of the closest presidential election in a generation.
Two days after millions of Nigerians voted, there is still a concern because only about a third of the results have been posted on the electoral body’s website. However, results are still being announced at the National Collation Centre in Abuja.
Preliminary results gathered by Business Post from the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of INEC in the various states of the country show that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr Bola Tinubu, is leading with 7.54 million votes, followed by Mr Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 6.03 million votes, Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party with 4.29 million votes, and Mr Rabiu Kwakwanso of the New
Because the INEC tracking portal, INEC Result Election Viewer, is experiencing technical difficulties, data was gathered from third-party resource centres (IreV).
The votes, in which 87 million voters cast ballots on Saturday, were the first to be conducted nationally using biometric machines known as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voter verification, but there were numerous reports of glitches.
Despite claims that elections were held at most of Nigeria’s 176,606 polling units and that the 87.2 million voters with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) voted for their preferred candidates, the numbers presented show a drop in voting compared to expectations.
Political parties have criticized INEC, claiming that results are being uploaded slowly and that there aren’t enough checks and balances to ensure that the results collated and announced by INEC match those sent by individual polling stations.
Agents of the PDP and Labour Party, led by Mr Dino Melaye, staged a walkout yesterday.
Early morning results show that the PDP won Kaduna, Bayelsa, and Sokoto states, while the Labour Party won Cross River, FCT Abuja, and Zamfara.
