APA – Lagos (Nigeria) There is an anxious wait in Nigeria where the collation of Saturday’s crunch presidential vote got underway on Sunday.
Citizens are on bated breath for the outcome of the vote which was marred by some glitches and isolated incidence of violence ostensibly by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno town.
Eighteen candidates are vying to replace outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari who has exhausted his constitutionally mandated two four-year terms and cannot run.
The outcome is expected to be one of the closest since dawn of democracy in Nigeria in 1999.
It is however, a three-horse race involving former vice-president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bola Tinubu of President Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who exit polls suggest is the frontrunner.
Running simultaneously were elections for the senate and the house of representatives.
The vote takes place agianst the backdrop of a battered economy, a mounting crisis over rising debt and inflation, high youth unemployment, worsening insecurity, weak financial and security institutions and a divided and polarised nation.
Political commentators say Nigeria’s 30 million youtful voters will play a decisive role in determining the outcome of the vote.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has said that INEC will commence the collation at midday on Sunday.
Prof. Yakubu told a news conference on Saturday in Abuja that the election results were expected by the commission from the states starting from Sunday.
“I will like to invite you at midday tomorrow (Sunday) for the official opening of the National Innovation Centre for the 2023 general elections.
“We hope that by Sunday, we expect to have some of the election results coming from states, particularly for the presidential election.
“So, the collation centre for the presidential election will open midday on Sunday,” Yakubu said.
GIK/APA
