Election officers cited technical issues and the absence of voter registers as causes of the delays.
Counting is underneath approach in Nigeria’s tightly contested presidential election, after a ballot marked by lengthy delays and gunfire at some voting stations.
The lengthy delays and scattered violence in Africa’s most populous nation on Saturday, nonetheless, didn't deter massive crowds of Nigerians hoping for a reset after years of worsening violence and hardship underneath outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.
The electoral fee stated the official outcomes may very well be anticipated late on Sunday. By the night, some polling stations had been already counting ballots, whereas voting was nonetheless occurring at others and had not taken place elsewhere.
Some voting is now anticipated to happen on Sunday.
Whoever wins will face a litany of crises.
Africa’s greatest democracy is scuffling with rebels within the northeast, an epidemic of kidnappings for ransom, battle between herders and farmers, shortages of money, gas and energy, in addition to deep-rooted corruption and poverty.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the outgoing administration have been credited for the continuing money and gas disaster that has paralysed financial exercise nationwide. Voters stated they had been displaying their dissatisfaction on the polls.
“The whole lot that has occurred up to now eight years has [been] draining for me,” Oyinkan Daramola, 29, advised Al Jazeera. She declined to reveal whom she has voted for out of worry of doable reprisals however hinted at a disdain for the 2 dominant events.
This was a typical feeling in varied places visited by Al Jazeera throughout six native authorities areas in Lagos.
“We can not maintain doing the identical factor time and again and anticipating completely different outcomes,” Daramola stated.
Buhari, a retired military normal, is stepping down after serving the utmost eight years allowed by the structure. The principle contenders to succeed him are former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, 70, of the APC, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, 76, of the primary opposition Peoples Democratic Occasion (PDP), and former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, 61, of the smaller Labour Occasion.
All three voted of their dwelling states, surrounded by chaotic scrums of reporters and supporters.
Some states had been anticipated to announce outcomes on Sunday, and the ultimate tally from all 36 states plus the federal capital Abuja was anticipated inside 5 days of voting. Nationwide Meeting seats are additionally on the poll on this election.
“Polling items in plenty of areas closed and sorting and counting of poll papers have commenced,” Mahmood Yakubu, Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC) chairman, stated in a press briefing on Saturday night.
Voting delays
In Mpape, a largely undeveloped however densely populated district throughout the capital territory, a whole lot of weary voters had been seen ready to solid their votes.
“I’ve been right here since 7am at this time simply to vote. I got here earlier than the INEC officers even bought right here, and but, I’m not prepared to go away right here till I've voted,” a 45-year-old faculty trainer, who gave her title solely as Patricia, advised Al Jazeera at roughly 3pm native time (14:00 GMT). She was one in all almost 700 folks ready to vote.
At 7pm (18:00 GMT), she was nonetheless within the queue, ready her flip.
“I needed to go dwelling to feed my household, however I'm again now,” she stated. She was quantity 409 on the listing of voters standing within the rain to solid their votes.
In Wuye District, a neighbourhood to the west of Abuja metropolis centre, greater than 100 folks, principally younger, had been seen nonetheless ready to vote at almost 8pm native time (19:00 GMT).
Officers from INEC cited technical issues with a brand new biometric antifraud voter accreditation system, the late arrival of autos to move them and the absence of voter registers as causes of delays.
“It's irritating that INEC usually are not ready for us. All we would like is simply to vote,” stated Sylvester Iwu, who was amongst a big crowd ready at a polling station in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State within the southern oil-producing Niger Delta.
In a televised information briefing, INEC’s Yakubu stated six biometric machines had been stolen in northern Katsina State and two in southern Delta State. He additionally acknowledged the delays however stated voters would be capable of solid their ballots.
“The election will maintain, and nobody will probably be disenfranchised,” he stated.
Yakubu stated at a later briefing that voting would happen on Sunday in a number of wards in Yenagoa that had skilled extreme disruption on Saturday.
Morayo Ajayi, a 22-year-old undergraduate pupil in Akwa Ibom, stated she is set to vote for her candidate irrespective of how late it bought.
“I don’t care if I've to sleep right here, however I’m going vote for Peter Obi at this time,” she stated. “After all, I’ve been ready for hours, however I don’t thoughts the wait. I'll see this to the top,” she stated.
Many youths throughout Nigeria are supporting the Labour Occasion’s candidate Peter Obi. Nonetheless, the APC’s Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP are broadly seen because the candidates to beat.
In Elegushi, an prosperous space of Lagos, 54-year-old banker Osho Adekunle waited in line for 5 hours. He's voting for Tinubu due to his “antecedents” in Lagos, a fulcrum on which Tinubu’s supporters based mostly his marketing campaign.
For Adekunle, the 1993 annulled election, which noticed Moshood Abiola, a Yoruba like himself and Tinubu, being denied his mandate, impressed his decisions there.
“We that know in regards to the historical past usually are not voting on sentiment however on practicality,” he stated.
Voter frustration
There have been experiences of scattered violent incidents on Saturday, although not on the dimensions seen in earlier elections within the nation of greater than 200 million folks.
In northeast Borno State, suspected fighters from the Boko Haram group fired mortar shells within the rural Gwoza space, killing one youngster, wounding 4 others and disrupting voting, military sources stated.
In Abuja, a workforce from the anti-corruption Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC) was attacked by thugs simply after arresting a person on suspicion of paying for a bunch of individuals’s votes utilizing a banking app, the fee stated.
In most areas, nonetheless, the day appeared to have unfolded peacefully regardless of frustrations over the delays.
In Aguolu, Obi’s hometown in his native Anambra, voting went easily. EFCC officers stopped by to watch voting there for any doable inducement of voters.
Throughout elements of Onitsha, Anambra’s business capital, and parts of close by Asaba, the executive capital of Delta state within the Niger Delta area, many young and old folks stated they had been voting for Obi.
This, regardless of Delta state Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, an Igbo, being deputy governor on the PDP’s ticket alongside Atiku Abubakar, whom Obi ran with in 2019.
“That’s not my downside, ” Emmanuel Edozie-Uno, a 23-year-old pupil voting for Obi in Asaba, advised Al Jazeera. “I voted for Obi.”
Extra reporting by Ruth Olurounbi, Ope Adetayo, and Eromo Egbejule
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