APA-Lagos (Nigeria) The general election in Africa’s most populous nation touches off a three-horse race for the presidency whose incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is ineligible to run after his constitutionally mandated two four-year terms.
Millions of Nigerians have been heading out to vote in Saturday’s exercise with some 88 million people eligible to vote in the polls which also include elections for members of the house of representative and the senate.
In and around the commercial capital Lagos, people began queuing as early as 2am although polling officially began at 7am nationwide.
Roads have seen an unusually light traffic in a city notorious for its daily traffic logjams.
The vote is expected to be one of the closest presidential races since dawn of democracy in Nigeria in 1999 with eighteen candidates vying for the top job.
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.
The vote takes place agianst the backdrop of a battered economy with 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.
WN/as/APA