Last updated on February 28th, 2023 at 07:09 am
The presidential election in Nigeria has been marked by long delays at some polling locations, but this has not dissuaded the large crowds of voters who are hoping for a fresh start after years of worsening violence and hardship under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. The nation with the most people on the African continent is having trouble dealing with insurgencies in the northeast, an epidemic of kidnappings for ransom, conflict between herders and farmers, shortages of cash, gasoline, and electricity, as well as deeply ingrained corruption and poverty.
At 9:00 GMT on Saturday, Bola Tinubu, a member of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), arrived at the polling center where he was going to cast his vote. He was greeted with pomp and pageantry by supporters who had been waiting for him. On the other hand, the decisions that voters made elsewhere in Nigeria’s commercial capital, which is Tinubu’s stronghold, did not appear to echo the fanfare.
The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and the administration of departing President Muhammadu Buhari are being blamed for the current cash and fuel crises that have halted economic activity across the country. A number of voters reported that they were demonstrating their discontent at the polls.
Oyinkan Daramola, who is now 29 years old, shared with Al Jazeera that “everything that has happened to me in the previous eight years has been draining.” She did not disclose who she voted for out of fear of potential retaliation but alluded to her disdain for the two major parties in the election.
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According to what Daramola had to say, “We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different outcomes.” Some states were expected to announce their results on Sunday, and the final tally from all 36 states and the federal capital of Abuja was expected to be available five days after the election. In addition, elections to fill positions in the National Assembly will be held on the same day.
As the voting process began to wind down in Abuja, some polling units in some areas of the Federal Capital Territory began sorting and counting the ballots. In a press briefing held on Saturday evening, the chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, announced that polling stations in a number of areas had closed and that the process of sorting and counting ballot papers had begun.
Hundreds of weary voters were observed standing in line to cast their ballots in Mpape, a district located within the capital territory that is largely underdeveloped but has a high population density.
Peter Obi, the candidate for the Labour Party, has garnered the backing of many young people all over Nigeria. However, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the leading opposition party, are generally regarded as the candidates to beat.
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