Why Nigerians are still waiting for election results 3 days after voting ended

All ears and eyes are alert. Everyone is waiting for the final results from the Nigerian elections which began on Saturday, February 25, 2023.

With key competitors like Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), the race has not been an easy one.

The polls began on a good note on Saturday, February 25 across the country but the day ended with pockets of violence and disruptions in some states like Bayelsa and Edo.

Subsequently, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the election in the above states to Sunday, February 26, 2023.

Collation however began on Saturday at the end of the voting process, into Sunday, and then Monday. From indications and provisional results, Tinubu is in the lead.

After collation, the presentation of the results from the states to the INEC was expected to happen on Monday, at 11 am Nigerian time. This was later pushed to 11.30 am and subsequently to 3.30 pm Nigerian time.

After a rather rigorous process with results presented from some states, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to make a final declaration of results to determine who lost and who won in the various states.

After this, INEC is expected to declare the overall winner in the Nigerian elections.

As it stands, the wait is on but it is still uncertain whether there will be another postponement of the presentation of the results from the states.

Members of the INEC are expected at the National Coalition Center where the results will be announced but currently, representatives from the various parties and observers are at the Center.

Meanwhile, it is still not known who will be declared the winner considering that, per the Nigerian Constitution, the winner of the election is supposed to have polled about 25% of votes in 24 states including the FCT (which is the Federal Capital Territory).

As it stands, Tinubu has won 8 states excluding the FCT which his contender, Peter Obi won.

Regardless, he is leading with the majority of the votes per provisional results collated by mynigeria.com with over 5 million votes.

Atiku Abubakar of PDP currently has the highest number of states – 10 and the second highest number of votes – 4 million.

Peter Obi is third with some over 2 million votes but has won the FCT.

WA