#2023 Elections: Results trickle in after voting problems

Officials on Sunday began announcing results of Saturday’s presidential and national assembly elections, but the process has drawn criticisms after voters faced delays and attacks in some parts of the country.

The election, the most competitive since the end of military rule in 1999, has three leading candidates, including Peter Obi of the relatively smaller Labour Party, who is backed mainly by young people seeking to end the dominance of the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP.

At many polling stations, voters waited patiently to cast their ballots, some singing and dancing, a rare sight in a nation with a youth population that historically sees little interest in elections. Voting continued into the night and many results were shared online after midnight.

Despite the high turnout, the process was marred by delays at polling stations, dysfunctional machines and attacks by armed men, especially in southern areas, where Mr Obi has strong support.

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Mahmood Yakubu said criminals seized some biometric machines known as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which uses facial and fingerprint recognition technology.

The electoral body had said the machines it introduced this year for the first time were capable of uploading results soon after voting to a central database and could improve transparency.

But voters and some parties have already alleged fraud, saying in some places people thump-printed ballot papers and were not identified by the BVAS. Voters in Lagos, the stronghold of APC’s Bola Tinubu, and in Rivers state, said thugs threatened people to vote for their candidates, and results were doctored after voting closed.

Not Accepting

The Labour Party said it would challenge the outcome of the polls in court, citing widespread irregularities. The party said most of its members were deliberately denied voting in its strongholds, citing Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Kano, Yobe, and Edo states.

“The delay by INEC to upload and announce results, especially where Labour Party, is already known to have taken lead, is also worrisome and we feel it is deliberate to anger our party and our supporters,” party secretary Umar Ibrahim said in a statement.

At a press briefing on Saturday, Yakubu apologised for the delays. He said in Borno state, Boko Haram militants had opened fire on electoral officers from a mountain top in Gwoza, injuring a number of officials.

Early Results

Official results from Ekiti state show victory for the APC. The party has also done well in other states in the southwest as well as in northern states. Atiku Abubakar of PDP and the Labour Party’s Obi have recorded wins in some northern and southern areas too.

Results from more than a hundred thousand polling units are still being added up. Later, the returning officers in each state will travel to Abuja where the results will be announced state-by-state.

Final results may not come Tuesday, or even Wednesday. In past elections, winners were announced two days after voting. Inec has suspended announcement of results until 11:00 on Monday.