Nigeria Latest: Tinubu Wins Ekiti Vote; Next Briefing at 11 a.m.

Ruth Olurounbi and William Clowes
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The Nigerian ruling party’s presidential candidate Bola Tinubu won the most votes in a small southwest state as the first results from Saturday’s election began being released.

Tinubu won 201,494 votes in Ekiti state, the returning officer of the province said at a briefing organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday. The Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar got 89,554, while the Labour Party’s Peter Obi garnered 11,397. Nigeria has 36 states and the capital region of Abuja.

Elections in Africa’s biggest democracy have been marred by glitches in a new electronic system that’s being used to verify citizens’ identities, delaying voting. That was followed by a snag in polling stations transmitting the count, raising concerns that the results might get compromised.

“The commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems,” the INEC said in a statement. “Results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated.”

The election agency will next meet at 11 a.m. Monday, Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said.

Jittery Parties (Feb. 26, 5:28 p.m.)

Opposition parties urged the electoral commission to immediately release results from the vote to reduce the chances of the outcome being compromised.

Polling stations were supposed to transmit the counts as soon as they were tallied, but the electoral commission had published results from less than a quarter of them by 4 p.m. local time. Officials in some areas, including one south of the capital Abuja, uploaded notes saying the “election was declared not contested,” following attacks by criminals.

Infighting in Rivers State Ruling Party May Help Obi (Feb. 25, 6:26 p.m.)

Infighting between leaders of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which rules the biggest state in Nigeria’s oil-producing region, is likely to help Labour Party’s Obi.

Nyesom Wike, the outgoing state governor, refused to back Abubakar, despite the two belonging to the same party. Abubakar’s supporters accused Wike of undermining their campaign and secretly backing ruling-party nominee 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 Lauds Turnout (Feb. 25, 5:13 p.m.)

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, said the election turnout 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.

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 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.

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