Nigeria Election 2023 Live Updates: Opposition Parties Call For Cancellation Of ‘Sham’ Election As Ruling Party Candidate Bola Tinubu Takes Early Lead
Nigeria’s two main opposition parties on Tuesday called for the cancellation of the weekend presidential elections, alleging manipulation of results, and demanded a new ballot.
“The election is irretrievably compromised and we have totally lost faith in the entire process,” Labour Party chairman Julius Abure told reporters along with representatives of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“We demand that this sham of an election should be immediately cancelled,” Abure said. “We also call for a fresh election to be carried out.”
Early tallies from Saturday’s election show ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party candidate Bola Tinubu ahead of PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
Voting was mostly peaceful, but many polling stations opened very late and delays and technical problems disrupted the uploading of tallies from local polling stations to a central website.
The country’s election overseer, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said the problems were technical glitches.
But the opposition says failures in the system allowed for manipulation and disparities in the results.
“This election is not free, and far from being fair and transparent,” Abure said.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, this is the time of a great test of your integrity. Use your office to save Nigerians from this electoral mismanagement,” he added.
With President Muhammadu Buhari stepping down, many Nigerians voted with the hope that a new leader will do a better job tackling insecurity, economic malaise and widening poverty in Africa’s most populous country.
