Nigeria Third-Place Opposition Party to Sue Over Tinubu Victory

(Bloomberg) -- The Nigerian opposition party that finished third in the presidential election said it will challenge the result in court.

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The Labour Party “will go to court within the stipulated time,” its vice presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, told reporters in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday. The Independent National Electoral Commission earlier declared the ruling party’s Bola Tinubu the winner of the contest with about 35% of the votes.

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Tinubu beat Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, who received 28% of the ballots, and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, who garnered around 24%. Both parties boycotted the collation process on Tuesday, alleging “monumental disparities” between the official results and the data available with their polling agents.

The opposition parties have especially criticized the electoral agency’s failure to ensure that its officials uploaded disaggregated score sheets to an online portal directly from the polling stations — a measure used for the first time in a nationwide poll and intended to boost public confidence in Nigeria’s democracy.

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“Illegality has been performed and, as far as we’re concerned, here is an incoming government that is illegal and unconstitutional,” Baba-Ahmed said.

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