- The electoral commission has declared ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election.
- Tinubu’s ruling All Progressives Congress party urged the opposition to accept defeat.
The announcement is likely to lead to a court challenge by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi who finished behind Tinubu.
Observers said polls were mostly peaceful, though delays caused some voters to wait until the following day to cast their ballots.“Reactions are mixed depending on whom you talked to,” Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reporting from Nigerian capital Abuja said.
“The opposition is still angry; they feel they were cheated out of the race,” Idris said.
“The supporters of the government party are excited. However, the celebration is muted. People argue about the election result and what the future holds. We spoke to one opposition party, who told us they are going to meet this morning and put out a former reaction about the commission.”
“The opposition party said they will challenge this result in court,” Idris added.
Nigeria’s new president-elect Tinubu is defending the integrity of the vote after the main opposition parties said it was fraudulent.
“I take this opportunity to appeal to my fellow contestants to let us team up together,” Tinubu said. “It is the only nation we have. It is one country, and we must build together.”
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission says Tinubu got 8.8 million votes. Opposition parties had earlier called for Saturday’s poll to be cancelled
A supporter of Bola Ahmed Tinubu celebrates after he was declared winner in Nigeria's presidential election, at the Party's campaign headquarters, in Abuja
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris talks to us about people’s frustrations over the worsening economy, insecurity and rising cost of living.Results from the 176,846 polling stations were counted manually and were then relayed electronically to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja, for posting on its website.
The results were also tallied at the ward, local government and state level.
A returning officer from each state was to travel to Abuja with a tally sheet, to be compared against results sent directly by polling stations to the national collation centre.
Buhari calls on opposition parties not to undermine electoral body
President Muhammadu Buhari says opposition parties should not undermine the electoral commission, adding that the results announced by the poll body show democracy is “ripening” in the West African country.
“The results reveal democracy’s ripening in our country. Votes and those that cast them cannot be taken for granted. Each must be earned. Competition is good for our democracy. There is no doubt the people’s decision has been rendered in the results we look at today,” Buhari said in a tweet.
“If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then bring forward the evidence. To take to the streets means they are not doing it in the interest of the people, but rather to inflame, to put people in harm’s way and all for personal, selfish gains,” Buhari said.
“Do not undermine the credibility of INEC [The Independent National Electoral Commission]. Let us now move forward as one. The people have spoken,” he added.
‘Anger’ from opposition parties as they claim vote ‘stolen’
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, says people are just waking up to the announcement that Bola Tinubu has been declared the winner of Saturday’s poll.
“It’s been a very tense moment for everybody and considering the delay we’ve seen over the past few days and reactions to protests from opposition parties, we expected this to happen. With the result coming so early, definitely, a lot of people are just waking up to the news that the ruling party candidate has just won,” Idris said.
“This is a deeply divided country. So many factors have played at the elections. You have religion, politics, regionalism and ethnicity. So many problems have gone into this election,” he added.
“The next few days will determine if we will see protests on the streets. There is a lot of anger from the opposition parties that this election was stolen from them. The ruling party insisted that there was no play in the election commission,” Idris said.Who were the main candidates in Saturday’s election? Eighteen candidates were on the ballot in Saturday’s vote.
But four received the most attention because of their chances to win or force a runoff.
Nigeria’s new president-elect Bola Tinubu has defended the integrity of the national election that he won, and called on citizens to unite around him after a bitter dispute over results that opposition parties have said are flawed.
“I commend INEC [The Independent National Electoral Commission] for running a credible election no matter what anybody says,” Tinubu said. “The lapses that were reported, they were relatively few in number and were immaterial to affect the final outcome of the election.”
INEC promised to upload results from each polling unit to its website in real time but most units were unable to do so immediately, undermining trust in the process. Because of these failings, the main opposition parties of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have rejected the results as fraudulent.
Ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu, looks on in Abuja on March 1, 2023 during celebrations at his campaign headquarters .Ruling APC supporters celebrate Tinubu’s election victory
The ruling All Progressives Congress party supporters are celebrating Bola Tinubu’s election win after the former Lagos governor was declared president-elect by the electoral commission.
“None of the others matches his record!” said Babafemi Akin, as he talked excitedly about the prospects of a Tinubu administration. “I am sure he will do well.”
Adenike Mutiat Abubakar, 43, said he has high hopes for Tinubu to deliver for all Nigerians.
“He has done it before, and we know that he will do better than what he did in Lagos,” Abubakar said. “He’s the man of the people, so that’s why everybody wants him.”President Buhari congratulates Tinubu on election win
President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Bola Tinubu for winning Saturday’s highly contested poll.
“Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power,” Buhari said in a statement.
