The publication of the provisional results of the Nigerian presidential election has been delayed. Everything should be decided today.
18 candidates, more than 87 million voters and nearly 176 polling stations… With such a logistical organization, difficult to count the day after the vote. This Sunday was the first round of the Nigerian presidentiale. Among the 18 candidates in the running, three were likely to finish first: Bola Tinubu, of the APC, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi, Labor Party.
While Nigerian voters were waiting for the first official results from Sunday noon, then at the end of the afternoon, the president of the National Electoral Commission (Inec), Mahmood Yakubu, finally had to make an entire country wait. Because, on Sunday evening, only the results of one state – out of the 36 in Nigeria – were published.
The collection of ballots from other polling stations has been suspended and resumes on Monday morning. Suffice to say that it will take patience to know the duo came out on top, or even the big winner of the presidential election.
Candidates who are quite upset
And the results from Ekiti State, in the south-west, will not necessarily be representative of the final results. Because this state is the smallest in the country. However, it is good to know that, according to the results of the Electoral Commission, the ruling party, the APC, came out on top. But that's anything but a surprise, as Bola Tinubu is Yoruba, like the majority of voters in the small state.
Faced with the passage of time, the PDP candidate has decided to put pressure on the Electoral Commission: Atiku Abubakar is asking for the official results to be published as soon as possible, already accusing the governors of wanting to rig the results. Peter Obi, for his part, accuses the commission of hiding the results from Lagos State and the Delta. Atmosphere.
Logical pressures. Because, according to observers, the results should have been sent by the electoral agents before the end of the evening. However, nothing has been done in this direction. What quite annoy the two outsiders, who both think they can thwart the predictions.
Time is not the ally of power. “The longer the results take to be published, the more voters will think they have been duped,” insists an observer of local political life. Especially if the candidate of the ruling party comes out on top, in the end”.
Already, opponents are preparing for appeals. In the meantime, everyone is patient, hoping to know the results of this important election before the end of the day.