Nigerians stand watch at polling stations as vote counting gets under way

Many Nigerians stood watch at their polling stations as counting got under way late Saturday in Africa's most populous country..

Others, cast their ballots after a day of delays in the country's general elections, amid fears of vote tampering.

For the first time this year Nigeria's election results will be transmitted electronically to headquarters in Abuja, a step official say will reduce voter fraud.

There are 18 candidates vying for the top office and to succeed President Buhari. The frontrunners are Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Bola Tinubu.

Delays and attacks

If voting was largely peaceful on election day, there were fears of violence from militants in the north to separatists in the south.

Mahmood Yakubu also said voting would continue late into the evening in places that had recorded violence but now have an adequate security presence.

The vote is being carefully watched as Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation.

The official results for turnout are highly expected. In 2019 33% of voter participated in the election.

Voting officially closed at 01:30 PM GMT but by that time, several polling units still had long queues across the country as voted kick off late.

Source: Africanews

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