Eighteen candidates, three favorites: the counting operations continue, Sunday, February 26, in Nigeria, after the vote, Saturday, of the first round of a presidential election more open than ever.
More than 87 million voters were called upon to choose the man who will have the difficult task for four years of redressing the most populous country in Africa, weighed down by a flagging economy, recurrent violence by armed groups and bandits, as well as a general impoverishment of the population.
Like Juliette Ogbonda, many voters stayed to count aloud as poll workers counted the ballots after dark. "I want to make sure this election is transparent, free and fair," said the 30-year-old receptionist in Port Harcourt (southeast).
L’outsider Peter Obi
An unprecedented situation since the return to democracy in 1999, Nigeria could experience a two-round presidential election if outsider Peter Obi, who has succeeded in establishing himself as a serious challenger against the two parties traditionally dominating Nigerian politics, transforms the trial at the ballot box. The ex-governor of Anambra (south-east), a 61-year-old Christian supported by the small Labor Party (LP) and very popular with young people, faces two veterans experienced in the exercise of power.
Bola Tinubu, 70, represents the APC of President Muahammadu Buhari, who is stepping down as required by the Constitution after two terms with a much criticized record. Considered one of the richest and most influential men in the country, this former governor of the economic capital Lagos, a Yoruba of Muslim faith, warned: this time, "it's my turn".
At 76, former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, of the opposition (PDP, in power from 1999 to 2015), will seek the presidency for the sixth time. Originally from the north and of the Muslim faith, he hopes to win many votes in this part of the country.
Electronic transfer for faster feedback of votes
To be elected in the first round, the winner must obtain, in addition to the majority of the votes cast, at least 25% of the votes in two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation plus the territory of the federal capital, Abuja. Otherwise a second round should take place within twenty-one days.
The data collected in the approximately 176,000 polling stations is supposed to go back faster than in previous elections in Abuja thanks to the electronic transfer of results, tested for the first time at the national level. But voting continued well after the official closing time (2:30 p.m. local time) in several parts of the country, such as in Anambra (southeast) or Kano (north), where many voters continued to vote late in the day. the evening, mainly due to delays in the deployment of equipment or technical failures.
“We will stay here until all of us have voted because the voting started late. The electoral material arrived around 1:30 p.m. ”, denounced in the evening Adamu Abdullahi, 35, who was still waiting for his turn in a polling station in the Fagge district, in Kano.
Overall, the poll was peaceful, according to several observers, although the president of the electoral commission (Inec), Mahmood Yakubu, admitted that security incidents had "disrupted the vote" in several places, including in Lagos and in the southeast of the country. In the state of Bayelsa, the ballot was thus suspended in a hundred polling stations, and must resume on Sunday.
Analyst firm SBM Intelligence said it documented localized "acts of intimidation and violence" against voters or polling stations in at least 13 states during the day Saturday.
A crucial vote
This election is crucial: Nigeria - 216 million inhabitants - should become the third most populous country in the world by 2050, while West Africa is threatened by a strong democratic decline and the spread of jihadist violence.
The continent's leading economy has become a global cultural powerhouse, thanks in particular to afrobeats, a musical genre that is setting the planet on fire with stars like Burna Boy and Wizkid.
But in the face of immense daily hardship, compounded by recent shortages of petrol and banknotes, many Nigerians are calling for "change", sickened by decades of poor governance and an aging, notoriously corrupt elite. Participation, low in previous elections (33% in 2019) is another unknown. Inec did not specify when it would announce the results but they are expected in the coming days.
