The results will have taken almost four days to come out. Nigeria’s ruling party candidate, Bola Tinubu, won the presidential election in Africa’s most populous country on Wednesday, according to official results announced by the National Electoral Commission (Inec).
Bola Tinubu of the Progressives Congress (APC) won 8.8 million votes, ahead of his main rivals Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP, 6.9 million votes) and Peter Obi of the Labor Party (6, 1 million votes), in one of the most contested elections in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Observers criticize count delays
He also obtained 25% of the votes in at least two thirds of the 36 states of the federation as well as the territory of the capital Abuja, a necessary condition to be declared the winner. “Tinubu Bola Ahmed, of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is declared the winner and elected”, announced at 4:20 a.m. the president of Inec, Mahmood Yakubu to the press in Abuja.
More than 87 million voters were called to the polls on Saturday and the vote, whose turnout is not yet known, was generally peaceful. However, many observers have criticized delays in counting and major failures in the electronic transfer of results.
A “godfather” of politics
On Tuesday, even before the announcement of the final results, the opposition called for the cancellation of the election, denouncing “massive” fraud. Inec, for its part, brushed aside “unfounded and irresponsible” accusations, adding that the candidates were “free to go to court” if they considered themselves wronged.
Aged 70, Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos and nicknamed “the godfather” because of his immense political influence, will succeed outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, 80, who is stepping down after two terms as required by the Constitution.