Tinubu leads in presidential poll but PDP, LP demand rerun

Nigeria’s top opposition parties have demanded the cancellation of Saturday’s presidential election after complaints of irregularities during the polls and transmission of results marred the highly anticipated vote.

The PDP and the Labour Party said the election umpire, Inec, failed to upload election results electronically to its central website as required in the pre-election guidelines.

They also complained about discrepancies that suggest many results from the states had been tampered with. The keenly contested vote has former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the LP, and Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress as the leading candidates of 18 total. 

Tinubu is leading so far with just over 37% of the vote, official figures released so far show. Abubakar is in second place has 29% while Obi comes third with 26%.

The opposition parties say the results were a “sham” and called for cancellation. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo also criticized the polls, saying election officials had been compromised and results tampered with. He called for the cancellation of the polls.

Besides taking days to upload results, a delay many say has allowed results to be doctored, voters have pointed to discrepancies in the published results.

On Tuesday, a group of protesters denounced the electoral commission Inec. Another group held a counter-protest, urging the electoral commission to “complete your job” and calling on “Nigerians to stand up for democracy”.

European Union observers said the electoral body’s poor handling of the election undermined trust in the process. In its first post-election statement on Monday, they said they had also spotted inaccuracies in reported results.

Inec said the parties should take their complaints to court and has insisted on announcing the results.

Rare Alliance

In a rare alliance, the LP and PDP held two joint press conferences on Tuesday, with their chairpersons and vice-presidential candidates attending. They were joined by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which is relatively smaller.

“I demand that this sham of an election be cancelled and we call on Inec to conduct fresh elections within the window period provided by the electoral act,” said Julius Abure, chairman of the LP.

Tinubu’s campaign team condemned the opposition parties.

“If you’re not prepared to accept the shock of defeat, you have no moral rights to enjoy the fruits of victory,” its spokesman Dele Alake said.

The APC and PDP have dominated Nigerian politics since the return to democracy in 1999. Obi ran for president for the first time, promising to challenge the two-party system., with the support of many young people, who make up a third of registered voters.