Nigeria Election 2023 Live Updates: Here Are The Leading Presidential Candidates As Vote Counting Continues

Nigerians gathered to vote on Sunday in a few parts of the country where technical and other glitches prevented a national election from taking place the previous day, even as vote counting was underway in other places.

Election officials blamed the delays on logistical issues, though other observers pointed to the upheaval created by a redesigned currency that has left many unable to obtain bank notes. The cash shortage affected transport not only for voters but also for election workers and police officers providing security.

Mahmood Yakubu, head of Nigeria’s election commission, said voting would continue late into the evening in places that had recorded violence but now have an adequate security presence.

“We are determined that no Nigerian should and would be disenfranchised,” he said.

According to Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ballots are being counted at polling places at the close of voting and transmitted electronically in real-time to INEC’s Result Viewing portal (IReV), a first of its kind in Nigeria.

“With the electronic transmission system (IREV), people will already know the winners before the official announcement is made,” Rotimi Oyekanmi, a spokesman for INEC’s chairperson told the media.

To win, a candidate must garner a sufficient number of ballots to meet the 25% vote spread in 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states. In the absence of this, a second-round run-off between the top two candidates will be held within 21 days.

But Who Are The Main Candidates?

Eighteen candidates are on the ballot for Nigeria’s top, but three are leading the race for the popular vote, according to pre-election surveys.

One of the key contenders is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of term-limited President Muhammadu Buhari’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Another is the main opposition leader and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). And third strong contender, Peter Obi, is running under the lesser-known Labour Party, and altered early predictions of the presidential vote, which has typically been two-horse races between the ruling and opposition parties.

Seventy-year-old Tinubu, 70, is a former governor of Nigeria’s wealthy Lagos State, who wields significant influence in the southwestern region where he is acclaimed as a political godfather and kingmaker.

He boasts of aiding the election of Buhari to the presidency and declares it is now his turn to lead the country.

Candidate of the opposition party PDP Abubakar, 76, is a former Nigerian vice president and a staunch capitalist who made his fortune investing in various sectors in the country.

Abubakar’s presidential bid (his sixth attempt) had fueled concern that it might usurp an unofficial arrangement to rotate the presidency between Nigeria’s northern and southern regions, since he is from the same northern region as the outgoing leader, Buhari.

Labor Party’s Obi is a two-time former governor of southeastern Anambra State and has been touted as a credible alternative to the two major candidates by his hordes of supporters, mostly young Nigerians who call themselves ‘Obidients.’

Obi is also the only Christian among the leading candidates. His southeastern region has yet to produce a president or vice president since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999.

The ruling party’s Tinubu, from the religiously mixed southwestern part of the country, is a Muslim and also chose a Muslim running mate, despite the country’s unofficial tradition of mixed-faith presidential tickets.

All top three candidates are confident they can turn Nigeria’s fortunes around if voted into power, as the country battles myriad economic and security problems that range from fuel and cash shortages to rising terror attacks, high inflation, and a plummeting local currency.

One voter, Wandu, told the media in Lagos on Saturday that the most important issue is security.

“We need someone that has a hold and an understanding of the security challenges that we have. The economy is in free fall. We need someone that has a fair understanding of what we need to be better.”

Nigeria’s security forces have mobilized personnel to ensure hitch-free electioneering across the country.

The run-up to the polls has been fraught with violence that stemmed from protests against unpopular government policies and lethal attacks by armed criminal gangs.

On Wednesday, a senatorial candidate for the Labour Party was shot and burned in his campaign vehicle in the country’s southeastern Enugu State, police said.

Electoral body INEC suspended the election in Enugu East Senatorial District following the death of the candidate, it tweeted on Saturday, adding that the election will now be held on March 11.

Before the killing, violent protests had erupted across Nigerian states as citizens railed against the scarcity of gasoline in petrol outlets and a shortage of cash that followed a controversial currency redesign.

INEC hasn’t been spared from the chaos; its facilities have been torched in parts of the country.

Voting was cancelled at more than 200 planned polling units across Nigeria and voters were redirected to other poll locations, INEC said, due to security concerns.

Ahead of the elections, national police ordered a restriction of non-essential vehicular and waterway movements from midnight on election day until 6 p.m., while the country’s immigration service has ordered the closure of Nigeria’s land borders from midnight Saturday until midnight Sunday.

Weeks before polling day, the service had confiscated over 6000 voter cards from illegal migrants, whom it said had other national documents in their possession.

INEC spokesperson Oyekanmi nevertheless insists the poll results will be free and fair.

Final results are expected to be announced a few days after polling.

Current President Buhari tweeted on Thursday: “There should be no riots or acts of violence after the announcement of the election results. All grievances, personal or institutional, should be channelled to the relevant Courts.”